Intersubjectivity and the `Revival of Death': Toward a Critique of Sovereign Individualism

Abstract

The aim of the essay is to provide an introductory analysis of the potentially negative effects of religious or spiritual narratives invoked or encouraged when death is near. Drawing on the work of Jürgen Habermas and Jessica Benjamin, I argue that the encouragement of the unchecked expression of feelings coupled with the view that all individuals are sacred and have a sacred story promotes a potentially inhibited and inhibiting thanatological discourse. Instead of encouraging the inclusion of “spirituality” as a preferential discourse for dealing with death, dying, and bereavement, it is argued here that such encouragement may inadvertently have a disabling effect for those immediately involved in the process of dying (family and professional health care workers) and, at the same time, contribute to a social mystification or spiritualized understanding of death.

The loss of possibility: scientisation of death and the special case of early miscarriage

“…We use the term ‘pre‐modern’ not in a pejorative or belittling sense but simply in a chronological sense. ‘Modernity’ has become a prevalent sociological term in the discussion of culture and value schemes in secular capitalist industrial societies, the type of societies that were discussed in the classic sociological works of Marx, Durkheim and Weber (Giddens 1991, MacKendrick 2005, Walter 1994). Pre‐modern then refers to the societies that predated industrial capitalism.…”

“…Such changes do not, however, necessarily relieve the problems surrounding privatised deaths of ordinary individuals, especially where the loss is clouded by secrecy, as in the situation we explore here. Indeed MacKendrick (2005), in discussing Walter's work on the postmodern revival of death warns that replacing scientific thinking with individualistic or religious sentiments may place too much of a burden on the isolated bereaved person. In this paper we consider these various ideas in relation to a form of death which, although common, is still under‐researched and imperfectly understood: the loss of a baby in early miscarriage.…”