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Seeking Wisdom in Death's Shadows: Collected Writings on How We Grieve is a rich compilation of nine original and fourteen previously published essays that makes accessible the origins and development of Thomas Attig's most significant and sometimes revolutionary contributions to understanding and living in the shadows of death, dying, loss, and grief. Together for the first time in one volume, the collection constitutes a natural companion to Attig's
How We Grieve: Relearning the World and
The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love.
Gathered together, these essays trace significant developments in Attig's thinking through nearly fifty years in the discipline, including his web metaphor for the embodied, interdependent, soulful, spiritual, and resilient grieving self; his groundbreaking view of grieving as relearning how to live in a world changed profoundly by loss; and his view that the wisdom needed for effective grieving supports engaging with mysteries or challenges in life that none can change, control, or solve.
The book is divided into five sections, beginning with an introduction to the author's applied philosophy of life with loss and grief. This is followed by sections on contemporary discussions about grieving, aspects of self and grieving, caregiving in death's shadows, and harvesting wisdom. Together, this volume's presentation of original essays accompanied by pieces drawn from the scholarly literature cover an expansive range of topics, constructive critiques of several strands of influential contemporary thinking about them, and a unique philosophical approach and understanding that offers timeless value to scholars, practitioners, and grievers alike.
List of contents
- Preface
- Part I: My Search for Wisdom Begins
- Chapter 1: Introduction: Searching for Wisdom about Death and Dying
- Chapter 2: Grief and Personal Integrity
- Chapter 3: Relearning the World: On the Phenomenology of Grieving
- Chapter 4: The Importance of Conceiving of Grieving as an Active Process
- Chapter 5: Coping with Mortality: An Essay on Self-Mourning
- Part II: Contemporary Discussions
- Chapter 6: Relearning the World: Making and Finding Meanings
- Chapter 7: Relearning the World: Always Complicated, Sometimes More Than Others
- Chapter 8: Questionable Assumptions about Assumptive Worlds
- Chapter 9: Anticipating the Transition to Loving in Absence
- Chapter 10: Disenfranchised Grief Revisited: Discounting Hope and Love
- Part III: Aspects of Self and Grieving
- Chapter 11: Spirituality in Self and Grieving
- Chapter 12: Existential Suffering: Anguish Over Our Human Condition
- Chapter 13: Beyond Pain: The Existential Suffering of Children
- Chapter 14: Brokenness and Resilience
- Chapter 15: Hope in Mortality, Dying, and Grief
- Part IV: Caregiving in Death's Shadows
- Chapter 16: Perspectives on the Ethics of Caring for the Dying and the Bereaved
- Chapter 17: Rational Suicide in Terminal Illness: The Ethics of Intervention and Assistance
- Chapter 18: Is Evidence-Based Practice an Appropriate Model for Grief Counseling?
- Chapter 19: Self-Care through Sorrow-Friendly Practices
- Chapter 20: Wisdom-Based Grief Counseling
- Part V: Harvesting Wisdom
- Chapter 21: A Dozen Good Things about Grieving
- Chapter 22: Meanings of Death Seen through the Lens of Grieving
- Chapter 23: My Years of Living Mortally
- Acknowledgements
- Permissions
- Index
About the author
Thomas Attig holds BA and PhD degrees from Northwestern University and Washington University in St. Louis. At Bowling Green State University, while Chair, he and his colleagues established the world's first PhD Program in Applied Philosophy. A Fellow of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement, he has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Death Education from the International Network on Personal Meaning, Death Educator and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Robert Fulton Founder's Award from the Center for Death Education and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
