The near-death experience as status passage.
Near-death experiences are identity transitions with many of the major social features of status passage as these were originally formulated by Glaser and Strauss (Status Passage, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1971). These features are described and then compared with the similar experience of being a castaway after shipwreck. In this way, the clinical near-death experience can be analysed as one of a number of social near-death experiences. Viewed as status passage many of the psychological reactions can be usefully seen as context dependent processes rather than simply defence mechanisms or products of neurophysiology.
Kellehear
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Department of Sociology, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.
D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003643:Death; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D012380:Role; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior