Anticipating Death: The Experience of Anticipating Death of Self in Healthy Later Life

The book, Anticipating Death, describes and analyzes interviews with eight healthy older adults about their thoughts when anticipating their own future death. There are extensive quotations from the interviews in the section entitled 'Findings,' which will be of interest to many readers. The book was written and published as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing in 1996 by the author. This ebook is identical to the original book, with the exception of placing the 'Findings' section at the beginning, as it will be of most interest to readers. The methodology used for the study was phenomenology. The interviews were taped, transcribed and analyzed according to the methodology, as described in the book. During the course of the analysis, the author found that the participants were engaging in two mental processes, 'creating readiness' and 'achieving purpose.' These processes of thought were taking place across five 'spheres of being,' or perspectives: 'internal being,' 'existence in the world as a solitary being,' 'relationships with other individuals,' 'existence in the world as a part of humankind,' and 'existence after death.' Previous related research in the literature prior to the initial publication is described.