Sterven en voortleven in Nederland vanaf 1930. De regulering van macht en emoties aan het levenseinde

Samenvatting

The Regulation of Power and Emotions in Relationship between the Dying and Those Living On; The Netherlands from 1930 onwards. On the basis of a historical and comparative content analysis of the main books and journals of the nursing and medical professions a study of changes in the dominant codes and ideals regulating the relationships between the dying and those who live on in the Netherlands, since 1930, was conducted. These sources demonstrate that, until the middle of the Fifties, the pattern of codes and ideals reinforced a ‘regime of silence and sacred lies’. From then on, the ritual and rigid character of this regime loosened, and more informal and varied codes of behaviour and emotion management spread. An ‘emancipation of the dying’ coincided with an ‘emancipation of emotions’ - former taboos and defense mechanisms concerning death and dying faded as the social (hierarchical) and psychological distance between the people concerned diminished. This development is first described and then interpreted in terms of processes of democratization and informalization, of a regulation of power and emotions at the end of one’s life that is less hierarchical, more open, informal and individual. The growth of openness and interest in these matters is not only interpreted as decreasing denial and repression but also as increasing exercises in coping with feelings of powerlessness, in the course of which the standard sense of mortality has risen, demanding more emotional management. The analysis also shows that, as religious beliefs decreased - secularization - interest in and knowledge of individual and social processes increased - psychologicalization and sociologicalization: spurts in a process of mutual identification.