The experience of death and dying : a phenomenological study

The purpose of the present study was to describe an individual's unique experience of the phenomenon of death in light of the many possible ways in which human beings can and do experience it. To accomplish this end, an empirical, phenomenological method was used. Twenty-six, mature, well educated participants were engaged in an open-ended dialogue concerning their various experiences of (and with) death. Subsequent to this, participants were given a list of metaphors. Each participant chose, and discussed, those metaphors most closely reflecting the ways in which they perceive death.

A hermeneutic "analysis" of the dialogical text produced two main results: (1) The phenomenon of the experience of death is comprised of three major and ten minor themes and (2) These thematic and subthematic structures run across the following interdependent aspects of experiencing:

I. The immediacy of experience.

II. The perceived consequences of experience.

III. The "when" (or setting) of experience.

IV. Cognitive and societal appraisals, general belief systems.

V. Attitudes towards the dying process.

VI. Values for which one would sacrifice life.

The major and minor thematic structures which run across these six aspects of experiencing are as follows:

I. Death perceived as meaningless.

A. Death as a barrier--endings and inabilities.

B. Loss of meaning--confusion.

C. Intrusion on prior meanings--disruptions.

D. Conditions which obscure meaning--suffering.

II. Death perceived as meaningful.

A. Escape from conditions of meaninglessness--relief.

B. Attempts at control--fighting the barriers, or preparing for death

C. Mitigating factors (appealing to life's meanings)-- ambivalence

D. The reinstatement/transformation of meaning-- transcendence.

III. Death perceived as absence of meaning.

A. Absence of meaning experienced as passive modes--alien and far away.

B. Death rendered absent of meaning experienced as active modes--denying and avoiding

Results were discussed in terms of their relevance to religious and philosophical views as well as to findings of previous empirical studies. Clinical implications, as well as directions for future research relating to death and to phenomenology, were suggested.