with an emphasis on death and dying and, second, to outline a critique of
recent trends in thanatology that encourage or contribute to the mystification
or spiritualization of death – discourses which perpetuate or create “death
ideologies.”
In The Revival of DeathTony Walter maintains that European and North
American notions about death and dying have undergone significant transi-
tions in recent years, moving along the path of secularization, punctuated by
the disenchantment of death, the privatization of faith, and the decline of a
belief in hell (Walter 1997:175–182). Walter encapsulates the qualitative tran-
sition in attitudes toward authority during the dying process, from religious
to medical authorities and from medical authorities to the authority of the
self, with the title of a Frank Sinatra song, “I did it my way.” Although Walter
favors recent developments in thanatology, he also observes that the gradual
transition of death related behavior from acquiescence to an external author-
ity (such as a priest) to the personal authority of the self arrives with a pro-
found ambiguity. While the authority of the self may coincide with some
conceptions of self-reflective autonomy he notes it may also be coincidental
with a solipsistic and expressive individualism (Walter 1994:198) or what
could be called the sovereignty of the individual. Walter ’s conclusions, which
take the form of recommendations for future study and therapeutic practice,
indicate that the institution of expressive individualism can be avoided through
more interactive approaches to care. The kind of approach that Walter is hope-
ful about is exemplified but not exhausted by what he calls the postmodern
response to death. For Walter, the postmodern model of care is, for the most
part, a genuine advance in understanding dying and death; yet, he observes
that while it is relatively “good on discourse” and the importance of narra-
tively working through processes of dying, death, and bereavement, it is also
“bad on ritual” and the final disposal of the body. He argues that although
there is a growing awareness of the cathartic and therapeutic importance of
ritual activity as a means of coping with dying and bereavement this has all
too often been forgotten in the contemporary age of rapid rationalization and
bureaucratic management. Rather than focus on the disposal of the body, my
essay will further examine Walter ’s concerns about the individual and its
relation to authority within postmodernism.
180 • Kenneth G. MacKendrick