Farewell Letters I

The Dying Process of a Healthy Man

Bibliographic Data

ID13627899
AuthorsJoachim Wittkowski (University of Würzburg, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume82
Issue3
Pages370-388
Publication date2018-11-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0030222818812959
PMID30497329
OpenAlexW2902080455
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

This qualitative case study describes the dying process from a purely psychological perspective. The letters of Count Moltke, who was sentenced to death and executed during the Nazi regime, to his wife were analyzed content analytically. A work program of four self-imposed tasks emerged, namely first to avert the death sentence, second to prepare for the ideological and intellectual battle with the chairman of the court, third to support his wife in her anticipatory mourning, and fourth to achieve willingness for his dying by strangulation and for losing his life. Contrasting these findings with two cases of incurably ill men confirmed work and structure as the overarching way of coping. Religious coping is also of central importance. There was neither a linear trajectory nor a sequence of phases; rather, Moltke's dying process corresponds to a circular model. A consequence of the findings is outlined

Battle · Coping (psychology · Grief · Ideology · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sentence · Wife · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Law · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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