| Summary: | 碩士 === 南華大學 === 生死學研究所 === 99 === This study aimed to explore the physical, psychological and spiritual transformation of dying process of terminally ill patients under palliative care. Guided by interpretive anthropology, it included the viewpoints of Ken Wilber’s transpersonal psychology, the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, and Carl Jung’s theories on Symbolism as the interpretive standpoint, in addition to the viewpoints of Heidegger, Merleau-ponty, and other existential phenomenologists. The data collection were through field participation and observation. Thick-description and interpretation were then carried out so that the psychosomatic state, the spiritual transformation, and the probable meaning of terminally ill patients during the final stage of life could be understood.
The study found the following four themes: 1. the dying experience involved the vertical development of consciousness from body, mind, to spirit; 2. the experience of physical, psychological and spiritual transformation was understood as a challenge of continuing shift of dying persons’ self-identities; 3. the experience of physical, psychological and spiritual transformation was understood as a process of going towards and coming back from the originating point of world; 4. The description and interpretation of the experience of physical, psychological and spiritual transformation needed to be built on the worldview of transpersonal consciousness.
The results of this study showed that the palliative care should include the transpersonal consciousness of dying as a research domain, so as to have wider perspectives of understanding dying experience, as well as to provide clinical care staff with practical reference. If a caregiver understands the process of a patient’s spiritual transformation, s/he will be able to accompany the patient peacefully, empathetically, and the spiritual growth of patients will be facilitated. It is suggested to bring together medical researches and the life-and-death studies, by which the true spirit of palliative care is manifested.
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