KHARON

Thanatology Review

Electronic Journal

Content

Volume 12

Number 1-2 · 2008

Original article


 MAGDOLNA SINGER
MAGDOLNA SINGER

újságíró, mentálhigiénikus, gyásztanácsadó

magdolna@singer.hu

Modern Taygetus

Abstract · In the last few decades, the improvement of prenatal diagnosis made it possible to filter out fetal abnormalities, which, however, cannot be cured yet. Parents have to shoulder the responsibility whether they choose to abort the pregnancy or take on the responsibility to raise a child born with an illness. The author interviewed mothers who had experienced this situation and the subsequent physical and mental consequences of their decision. The stories reveal that most mothers did not get enough help to be able to process the events without a trauma. It would be desirable if both the society and the public health system took on greater responsibility in supporting the parents, helping them decide and bear the consequences, whatever these consequences are. In addition to giving adequate information on the condition affecting the foetus, it is necessary to introduce a new, automatic measure and involve a professional helper, with whom the parents have a chance to thoroughly discuss their opportunities and their life-long lasting consequences in order to arrive to a deliberate and responsible decision. Parents with an ill or disabled child should be able to count on greater acceptance and get more help by raising their child as well.


An introductory study to Áldatlan állapot [Unblessed Condition] by Magdolna Singer, Budapest, Jaffa Kiadó, 2008.
 ESZTER GLOVICZKINÉ HENTER
ESZTER GLOVICZKINÉ HENTER

egyetemi hallgató

glovimalna@freemail.hu

Death before life

Abstract · Who would question perinatal mourning? Who would question prenatal death, from which the mourning comes? Who would question prenatal life, which inevitably must exist if there is prenatal death? Who would question the correctness of the indisputably consecutive order of life, death and mourning? Did they die? Did they live? Who? What? To what extent does the concept of perinatal death and mourning as well as its examination and treatment routines cover the phenomenon of prenatal death and the relating mourning? Can there be such a thing as prenatal death without accepting the existence of prenatal life?

Confronting the linguistic and terminological study with medical theory and practice, our experience shows a serious conceptual and, as a consequence, social taboo phenomenon, the avoidance of which can lead to a distorted behaviour towards mourning.

 ZSUZSANNA BORBÁTH
ZSUZSANNA BORBÁTH

szociális munkás egyetemi hallgató

zsanki@yahoo.com

Being present. As a social worker beside the dying

Abstract · Just as we do not try to help someone else in other areas because we think he's a good man. The relativity of efficiency was also an essential recognition. Perhaps later on I will have a sharper eye to detect the little results in my work, too. Time is an important factor and it is important to look at it with fresh eyes, in order to have the patience to pick up the pace of the other and to help him at the exact stage that he has achieved.

Presently I do my Social Work studies at ELTE. I spent my 6-month fieldwork at a child welfare service provider, while the 12-month fieldwork at the Hospice House. Two very different jobs, very different experiences, very different methods. And yet, based on my experience, I believe that the deep, moving experiences gained beside dying people and their relatives can later prove useful both in my private and professional life. The theoretical concepts of social work gained a new and deeper meaning during my fieldwork due to personal experience. This is what I will discuss in my study.

 ZOLTÁN FIGUSCH
ZOLTÁN FIGUSCH

klinikai és neveléstani pszichológus; pszichodráma-terapeuta

figusch@hotmail.com

Soft hours: Psychodrama technique used in individual mourning process

Abstract · The purpose of this study is to approach the process of mourning with the help of psychodrama theory and to trace back the grief reactions and the stages of grief to the developmental phase of identity matrix and to the developing child's attachment and separation experiences. Following this theoretical review, the author introduces the psychodramatic technique of soft hours - which he developed through an individual psychotherapeutic process - through a clinical example of the unresolved mourning process of a young man.


Original publication: FIGUSCH Z. (2005): The Melting Clock: A psychodrama technique for grief work in a one-to-one setting. British Journal of Psychodrama and Sociodrama 20 (2): 23-39.
 SZABOLCS TUSORI
SZABOLCS TUSORI

vallástudomány szakos hallgató

tusori@freemail.hu

Hospice in Krishna Consciousness

Abstract · This study introduces the role of spiritual counseling in Krishna consciousness in a religious historical context. First, it overviews the cardinal reasons for the appearance of new religious movements – Krishna movement among them1 -, then it presents the circumstances of the birth of tanatology as a science and the relations between hospice and Krishna consciousness.

The second part reports the death of a devotee of Krishna, which is the starting point of the study. The writing reviews the major philosophical and theological points of Krishna consciousness and presents the intense relationship between the heroine and her spiritual teacher that lasted to the moment of death.


1 It must be emphasized that ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) does not accept the marker „new religious movement”, which is based on the fact that the cult of Vishnu (Krishna) originates in ancient roots. The founder of the society, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who is the western impersonator of a branch of the traditional Indian gaudiya vaishnavism, did not establish a new religion. However, ISKCON has been instituted in 1966 in the USA, therefore religious studies treat it as a new religious movement.