Quote:
Originally Posted by Kin Atoms
I will throw in a very different idea:
We have become isolated as persons and families. Death used to be a part of life, and our 'funeral homes' used to be our converted living rooms. Persons who died were laid out in the house and the community would appropriately grieve the loss of a loved one. There would be support for days and weeks after, and a bereaved family was looked upon.
We now have hospitals, urgent care facilities, nursing homes and ways of isolating as well as sanitizing ourselves from becoming decrepit with illness and death. We've also become a society of quick technologies with 'do-overs' left, right and center. There is similarly a great influence from the popular media of what our bereavement reactions should be; entertainment TV and even much of educational TV is an oxymoron. The US has little understanding of recognizing death. We have ritualized life into our ceremonies because the topic of death is repugnant.
The 'medicalization' of grief and bereavement may very well be what is reflected in society, as a way of further sanitizing the experience. We take pills for many other ills, using it as chemical discipline when we don't otherwise use our full repertoires in addressing needs. Conversely, if one medical provider cannot take away my sadness and another says I have to 'bear' it for another few months, I can always shop for another opinion, with another 'expert' who can take it away in pill form within weeks.
The less we tune in to others as a society, the greater likelihood we will end up banishing something like the holistic experience of death. A true appreciation of the same allows a greater experience of every other minute. Death is a real disruption: it affects marriages, graduations, vacations, picnics, and all sorts of other fun things. And it can't be scheduled you know. Of course, if every other minute must be as finely tuned as a movie set, well, give me a pill to get over it.
>my two cents<
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I agree with just about everything you said. Let me throw in this thought about your statement re medicalization of grief as a further extension of sanitization.
Our society's peculiar aversion to death may have the legitimate consequence of complicating some people's grief to the point that it does become a disorder. Grief over suicide, traumatic death, and disenfranchised grief in particular can trigger very unhealthy reactions in a culture where death has been so sanitized. Increased geographical separation from our loved ones can complicate grief for increased likelihood of regrets/unresolved relationships and a lack of local family support. These and other conditions of modern life might very well be making grief more likely to become genuine dysfunction.