A Good and Dignified Life

A Good and Dignified Life PDF Author: Joke J Hermsen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300264941
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
A timely and provocative essay about the parallel lives of Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt and their mission for a more humane society “An intimate and timely meditation on dark times, Hermsen’s illuminating essay offers readers a way to think with Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg about how to build a more humane world in common.”—Samantha Rose Hill, author of Hannah Arendt Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) and Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) were critical Jewish mavericks who both suffered under violent political regimes and sought to reform systems of power. Although temporally separated by the Second World War and the rise of totalitarianism, they held in common strikingly similar convictions about freedom, human dignity, capitalism, democracy, and political commitment. In this powerful book, Joke J. Hermsen explores the lives and works of these two remarkable thinkers and the essential hope that emboldened them in the political struggle. Luxemburg and Arendt were spurred on by a restless love for the world and an unwavering belief in the possibility of new beginnings; for them, hope was an absolute prerequisite of resistance and a counterpoint to melancholy—a defense against despair that kept them attuned to what could be. Exploring the intertwined nature of philosophy and the active pursuit of justice, this is an urgent, courageous reminder to remain alert to the glimmers of hope in dark times.

A Good and Dignified Life

A Good and Dignified Life PDF Author: Joke J Hermsen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300264941
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description
A timely and provocative essay about the parallel lives of Rosa Luxemburg and Hannah Arendt and their mission for a more humane society “An intimate and timely meditation on dark times, Hermsen’s illuminating essay offers readers a way to think with Hannah Arendt and Rosa Luxemburg about how to build a more humane world in common.”—Samantha Rose Hill, author of Hannah Arendt Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) and Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) were critical Jewish mavericks who both suffered under violent political regimes and sought to reform systems of power. Although temporally separated by the Second World War and the rise of totalitarianism, they held in common strikingly similar convictions about freedom, human dignity, capitalism, democracy, and political commitment. In this powerful book, Joke J. Hermsen explores the lives and works of these two remarkable thinkers and the essential hope that emboldened them in the political struggle. Luxemburg and Arendt were spurred on by a restless love for the world and an unwavering belief in the possibility of new beginnings; for them, hope was an absolute prerequisite of resistance and a counterpoint to melancholy—a defense against despair that kept them attuned to what could be. Exploring the intertwined nature of philosophy and the active pursuit of justice, this is an urgent, courageous reminder to remain alert to the glimmers of hope in dark times.

A Dignified Life

A Dignified Life PDF Author: Virginia Bell
Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
ISBN: 075730060X
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
More than 5 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer's disease or a related form of dementia. By the year 2030, experts estimate that as many as 66 million people around the world will be faced with this life-altering disease. Unfortunately, these staggering statistics impact millions of caregivers, too. Compared with all types of caregivers, those who assist someone with dementia experience the highest levels of burnout, depression, poor health, and premature death. A Dignified Life, Revised and Expanded offers hope and help with a proven approach. Ten years ago, the first edition of A Dignified Life changed the way the caregiving community approached Alzheimer's disease by showing caregivers how to act as a Best Friend to the person, finding positive ways to interact even as mental abilities declined. Firmly grounded in the latest knowledge about the progression and treatment of dementia, this expanded edition offers a wealth of immediately usable tips and new problem-solving advice. It incorporates practical ideas for therapeutic activities--including the latest brain-fitness exercises--stimulate the brain while adding structure, meaning, and context to daily routines. With new stories and examples as well as an updated resources section, A Dignified Life, Revised and Expanded gives caregivers the support and advice they need to be successful and inspired in their demanding roles. While medical treatment of the disease hasn't changed in the past ten years, our understanding and awareness of treating people in a more caring way has changed substantially. With no cure on the immediate horizon, respectful care by effective and compassionate care partners is the only real "treatment" available to people with dementia. The Best Friends(tm) Approach is successful because it sustains people's connection to their world, their loved ones, and themselves. It's a universal program which has been embraced by professional and family caregivers throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. In its revised form, A Dignified Life offers caregivers an antidote to the burnout and frustration that often accompanies the role of caring for a person with Alzheimer's and dementia. Rather than struggling through a series of frustrations and failures, A Dignified Life shows the new generation care partners how to bring dignity, meaning, and peace of mind to the lives of both those who have Alzheimer's and dementia and those who care for them.

Human Dignity

Human Dignity PDF Author: Peter Bieri
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745689051
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Dignity is humanitys most prized possession. We experience the loss of dignity as a terrible humiliation: when we lose our dignity we feel deprived of something without which life no longer seems worth living. But what exactly is this trait that we value so highly? In this important new book, distinguished philosopher Peter Bieri looks afresh at the notion of human dignity. In contrast to most traditional views, he argues that dignity is not an innate quality of human beings or a right that we possess by virtue of being human. Rather, dignity is a certain way to lead ones life. It is a pattern of thought, experience and action in other words, a way of living. In Bieris account, there are three key dimensions to dignity as a way of living. The first is the way I am treated by others: they can treat me in a way that leaves my dignity intact or they can destroy my dignity. The second dimension concerns the way that I treat other people: do I treat them in a way that allows me to live a dignified life? The third dimension concerns the view that I have of myself: which ways of seeing and treating myself allow me to maintain a sense of dignity? In the actual flow of day-to-day life these three dimensions of dignity are often interwoven, and this accounts in part for the complexity of the situations and experiences in which our dignity is at stake. So, why did we invent dignity and what role does it play in our lives? As thinking and acting beings, our lives are fragile and constantly under threat. A dignified way of living, argues Bieri, is humanitys way of coping with this threat. In our constantly endangered lives, it is important to stand our ground with confidence. Thus a dignified way of living is not any way of living: it is a particular way of responding to the existential experience of being under threat. It is also a particular way of answering the question: What kind of life do we wish to live? This beautifully written reflection on our most cherished human value will be of interest to a wide readership.

The Inevitable

The Inevitable PDF Author: Katie Engelhart
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250201470
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
“A remarkably nuanced, empathetic, and well-crafted work of journalism, [The Inevitable] explores what might be called the right-to-die underground, a world of people who wonder why a medical system that can do so much to try to extend their lives can do so little to help them end those lives in a peaceful and painless way.”—Brooke Jarvis, The New Yorker More states and countries are passing right-to-die laws that allow the sick and suffering to end their lives at pre-planned moments, with the help of physicians. But even where these laws exist, they leave many people behind. The Inevitable moves beyond margins of the law to the people who are meticulously planning their final hours—far from medical offices, legislative chambers, hospital ethics committees, and polite conversation. It also shines a light on the people who help them: loved ones and, sometimes, clandestine groups on the Internet that together form the “euthanasia underground.” Katie Engelhart, a veteran journalist, focuses on six people representing different aspects of the right to die debate. Two are doctors: a California physician who runs a boutique assisted death clinic and has written more lethal prescriptions than anyone else in the U.S.; an Australian named Philip Nitschke who lost his medical license for teaching people how to end their lives painlessly and peacefully at “DIY Death” workshops. The other four chapters belong to people who said they wanted to die because they were suffering unbearably—of old age, chronic illness, dementia, and mental anguish—and saw suicide as their only option. Spanning North America, Europe, and Australia, The Inevitable offers a deeply reported and fearless look at a morally tangled subject. It introduces readers to ordinary people who are fighting to find dignity and authenticity in the final hours of their lives.

In Love

In Love PDF Author: Amy Bloom
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593243943
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful memoir of a love that leads two people to find a courageous way to part—and a woman’s struggle to go forward in the face of loss—that “enriches the reader’s life with urgency and gratitude” (The Washington Post) “A pleasure to read . . . Rarely has a memoir about death been so full of life. . . . Bloom has a talent for mixing the prosaic and profound, the slapstick and the serious.”—USA Today ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR Amy Bloom began to notice changes in her husband, Brian: He retired early from a new job he loved; he withdrew from close friendships; he talked mostly about the past. Suddenly, it seemed there was a glass wall between them, and their long walks and talks stopped. Their world was altered forever when an MRI confirmed what they could no longer ignore: Brian had Alzheimer’s disease. Forced to confront the truth of the diagnosis and its impact on the future he had envisioned, Brian was determined to die on his feet, not live on his knees. Supporting each other in their last journey together, Brian and Amy made the unimaginably difficult and painful decision to go to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace. In this heartbreaking and surprising memoir, Bloom sheds light on a part of life we so often shy away from discussing—its ending. Written in Bloom’s captivating, insightful voice and with her trademark wit and candor, In Love is an unforgettable portrait of a beautiful marriage, and a boundary-defying love.

The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care

The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care PDF Author: Virginia Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781878812353
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care shows how easily you can make a difference in the life of a family member or client in your care. Here's the help you've been looking for: families will gain a renewed sense of hope, nursing facility staff will find simple applications for resident care, adult day center staff can enrich programming and attract more volunteers, and individuals with emerging Alzheimer's disease will gain valuable insights. Learn new ways to solve problems, encourage positive behavior, and improve communications. Make every day consistently reassuring, enjoyable, and secure.

A Dignified Ending

A Dignified Ending PDF Author: Lewis M. Cohen, MD
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538115751
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
Each year, more than one million people and their loved-ones arrive at a decision to cease attempts at curative medical treatments and shift to hospice care, while one-in-five Americans now live in in geographical regions that have established lawful protocols allowing medical aid in dying—also known as assisted suicide. In this powerful new work, Lew Cohen, a psychiatrist and palliative medicine researcher, reveals a self-determination movement that empowers people to shape the timing and circumstances of their deaths, decriminalizes laws threatening those who help them, and passes assisted dying legislature. He offers a vivid tapestry woven from the candid, inspirational, and graphic stories of individuals who sought to choreograph how they would die. There is nothing simple about these decisions, and A Dignified Ending tackles the intricacies of timing, the presence of dementia and other dire but not terminal conditions, the legal risks, as well as the mixed reactions of the disability community. Cohen illuminates the evolution of right-to-die organizations in the United States, and the impact of activists like Jack Kevorkian, Derek Humphrey, Faye Girsh, Cody Curtis, and Brittany Maynard. The decision to conclude one’s life with a planned death is an emotionally polarizing subject. Nonetheless, the public increasingly wants to control how they die. This requires that people formulate their end-of-life preferences and not wait until the last moment to communicate these with physicians and families. A Dignified Ending conveys truthful and nuanced accounts of men and women who chose to die, and stories of the activists—proponents and opponents— who promote this growing right-to-die movement.

Economic Dignity

Economic Dignity PDF Author: Gene Sperling
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984879898
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
“Timely and important . . . It should be our North Star for the recovery and beyond.” —Hillary Clinton “Sperling makes a forceful case that only by speaking to matters of the spirit can liberals root their belief in economic justice in people’s deepest aspirations—in their sense of purpose and self-worth.” —The New York Times When Gene Sperling was in charge of coordinating economic policy in the Obama White House, he found himself surprised when serious people in Washington told him that the Obama focus on health care was a distraction because it was “not focused on the economy.” How, he asked, was the fear felt by millions of Americans of being one serious illness away from financial ruin not considered an economic issue? Too often, Sperling found that we measured economic success by metrics like GDP instead of whether the economy was succeeding in lifting up the sense of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and security of people. In Economic Dignity, Sperling frames the way forward in a time of wrenching change and offers a vision of an economy whose guiding light is the promotion of dignity for all Americans.

Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict

Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict PDF Author: Donna Hicks
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300263503
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
A noted conflict-resolution expert explores dignity, its role in human conflict, and its power to improve relationships Drawing on her extensive experience in international conflict resolution and on insights from evolutionary biology, psychology, and neuroscience, Donna Hicks explains what the elements of dignity are, how to recognize dignity violations, how to respond when we are not treated with dignity, how dignity can restore a broken relationship, why leaders must understand the concept of dignity, and more. By choosing dignity as a way of life, Hicks shows, we open the way to greater peace within ourselves and to a safer and more humane world for all. For the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Dignity, Hicks has written a new preface that reflects on her experience helping communities and individuals understand the power of dignity and how it can lead to a more peaceful world. “Anyone who understands the importance of personal feelings and their fuel for conflict should consider Dignity as a powerful advisory and motivational guide.”—Midwest Book Review Winner of the 2012 Educator’s Award, given by the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Life's Work

Life's Work PDF Author: Willie J. Parker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501151126
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
An outspoken Christian reproductive-justice advocate draws on his upbringing in the Deep South and his experiences as a physician and abortion provider to explain why he believes that helping women in need without judgment is in accordance with Christian values.