The Awareness of Mortality: Continuing Kastenbaum's Developmental Legacy

Abstract

Kastenbaum's work had a strong developmental perspective. In fact, one of his first pieces explored the ways that adolescents experienced death. This article continues Kastenbaum's developmental perspective by considering the ways that a personal sense of mortality generally develops in adulthood as mid-life adults face the deaths of parents and peers as well as the inevitable signs of senescence.