title: Communicating with the dead: timeless insights and interventions from the arts.
abstract: T. S. Eliot's profound poetic insight says it all: "We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time." Nothing is static. Nothing is "new," and yet "knowing it for the first time" as Eliot suggests, is the precious paradox that refutes the idea that we must break our bonds with the dead in order to heal. Long before the "continuing bonds" term was coined, the arts-literary, visual, musical-have been grappling with the ongoing relationships between the living and the dead. This article illuminates provocative examples of this communication from the expressive side of human nature and offers commentary intended to stimulate further observation and reflection.
authors.affiliation: Good Shepherd Community Care Institute, Newton, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Bertman
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001154:Art; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003643:Death; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D012945:Social Values; D013561:Symbolism