著者

松岡 秀明 Hideaki Matsuoka

出版者

国際コミュニケ-ション学会

雑誌

国際経営・文化研究 (ISSN:13431412)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.12, no.1, pp.73-85, 2007-11

被引用文献数

1

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Fieldwork, a procedure that has been elaborated in the anthropological research, is an effective method in the study of terminal care. Narratives of informants are gathered and analyzed in detail, while also focusing on self-reflectively. The subject of my fieldwork in the study of terminal care is "spirituality." Spirituality in terminal care is related to "spiritual pain." Together with three other types of pain, physical, mental and social pain, spiritual pain constitutes "total pain." In the U.K. and the United States, the connotation of spiritual pain has shifted from religious to secular, and almost the same process has occurred in Japan. This change reflects the fact that death has become a personal matter. And behind this, there exists individualism which puts significance on the fact that an individual should choose her/his own way of dying. I aim to grasp the relationship between individualization of death and spirituality.