Doctors may deny that their patients are dying and attempt omnipotent means to keep them alive. Fear of death in both patients and doctors resonates with earlier fears of helplessness and abandonment. Once these are clarified patients may approach the ends of their lives with a sense of meaning and purpose, like a ripe fruit about to fall. Dying children can also achieve meaningful deaths if allowed to, and if they are supported.
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Publication Author: Paul Valent Publication Date: 1978 Categories: Biopsychosocial, Dying, bereavement