In a sense comparable to the physical autopsy

or postmortem examination me psychological

autopsy is the fulcrum for a scientific study of

the psychology of death dying ant re-

threatening behavior a field called thanatol-

ogy. The present book is the first ever to

systematically expouna the piece-by-piece re-

construction and synthesis of events sur-

rounding the terminalphase of life.

The author shows that to reanze death we

must penetrate our habitua fears platitudes,

formulas, and pretenses. In reaching these

goals, we should understand that there s a

difference between strrvival and significant

survival, between dying ana appropriate

death, aria between s ckness and responsibil-

ity. These questionsare posed and then care-

fully dissected and defined in terms of plaus-

ible answers.

As Dr. Edwin S. Shneidman savs n his fas-

cinating foreword to the book: "The nsv-

chological autopsy is no longer an ntant. It

comes of age in Dr. Weisman s book, The spe-

cial features of it lie in its multidisciplinary

spirit, the involvement of several strides OT

social and behaviora scientists in me retro-

spective creation from as many sources as

possible, of the tangible teatures of a now-

dead fellow human--to bring him to life as it

were and then try to divine his motivations

intentions, attitudes, and amb valences in rela-

tion to one specific temporal span of behavior

which in itself had extreme consequences

his dying. Dr. Weisman aptly terms this the

"lOCal event... .