''Awareness of Dying'' is a 1965 book () by

Barney Glaser Barney Galland Glaser (1930-2022) was an American sociologist and one of the founders of the grounded theory methodology. Glaser was born on February 27, 1930, in San Francisco, California, and lived in nearby Mill Valley. He received his Bachel ...

and

Anselm Strauss Anselm Leonard Strauss (December 18, 1916 – September 5, 1996) was an American sociologist professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) internationally known as a medical sociologist (especially for his pioneering attention t ...

. In his 2007 article, sociologist Stefan Timmermans called the book "landmark".

History and content

When Strauss came to the medical school of the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

, he looked for an interesting subject that would also get the attention of medical people. Visiting hospitals, he discovered that dying was a highly problematic issue. Strauss started field studies and six months later hired Glaser from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Both researchers already had personal experience with the subject: Strauss had lost his mother and a friend in recent years, Glaser his father. Strauss and Glaser suspected early on that the expectation of death by both the dying and the relatives were a key to understanding the interactions between those people. Their choice of hospitals and stations allowed them to compare various kinds of expectations. On a premature infant station, mortality was high but the patients were not aware of their impending deaths, while on an oncology station, dying was slow and differences in the awareness of dying were very pronounced. The typical situations were again different for emergency rooms and geriatrics or pediatrics departments. Out of these field studies grew ''Awareness of Dying'', a theory on the influence of awareness on the interaction with dying people. It differentiated between closed awareness, suspicion, mutual deception, and open awareness. The field studies had shown that the type of awareness had a significant impact on interaction — for instance, if patients were not aware of their dying, the

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

was often limited to the absolutely necessary in order to prevent open awareness.

Significance

The book was the first application of

grounded theory Grounded theory is a systematic methodology that has been largely applied to qualitative research conducted by social science, social scientists. The methodology involves the construction of hypotheses and theories through the collecting and anal ...

. Only two years later did Glaser and Strauss publish ''

The Discovery of Grounded Theory ''The Discovery of Grounded Theory'' is a 1967 book () by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss on grounded theory. After their success with '' Awareness of Dying'', Glaser and Strauss decided to write a book on methodology. ''The Discovery of Groun ...

'', a book on the methodology they developed while working on ''Awareness of Dying''.

References

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History and content

Significance

See also

References

Further reading