Part 1. Death and dying as a field of inquiry --Death and dying as a field of inquiry / Jeanne Quint Benoliel -- Chronic illness, the health care system, AIDS, and dying / Anselm Strauss -- Finding a way to give hospice care / Florence Wald -- Attitudes toward death : a persoanl perspective / Herman Feifel -- Society and the imperative of death / Robert Fulton -- Historical and contemporary theories of grief / Margaret Shandor Miles and Alice Sterner Demi -- Part 2. Concepts central to the study and practice of thanatology -- Is there an ideal deathbed scene? / Robert Kastenbaum -- Physiological characteristics of dying and death / Ida Matinson and Virginia Neelon -- Psychosocial variables / Mary L.S. Vachon -- Denial, acceptance, and other myths / Stepen R. Connor -- Bereavement guilt / Alice Sterner Demi and Margaret Shandor Miles -- Quality of living / Diane Scott-Dorsett -- Past endureance / Laurel Archer Copp -- Spoiled identities / Phyllis R. Silverman -- Complications in mourning traumatic death / Therese A. Rando -- Suicide / Judith M. Stillion -- Religious approaches to dying / David Head -- Part 3. Other ways of knowing -- Past the smart of feeling / Sandra L. Bertman -- Creativity and the close of life / Sally Bailey -- Integration / Jody Glittenberg -- Olga's new year / Myra Bluebond-Langner -- Letting go / Patricia Z. Fischer -- Sundays for Ruth / Ruth Harvey -- A diary of dying and living / Barbara Mims.