Thanato-technics: Temporal Horizons of Death and Dying.
Dylan T Lott
Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry June 1, 2025 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-024-09877-1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in India |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Brain death Postmortem Technics Tibetan buddhism |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that the concept of 'thanato-technics' reveals how end-of-life technologies impose rigid, binary categories of personhood, and that Western engagement with Tibetan Buddhist dying practices may inadvertently reinforce rather than challenge these categories. |
Abstract
Advances in end-of-life technologies increasingly destabilize received notions of personhood, identity, and ethics. As notions of personhood and identity within such systems are made to conform to discrete, binary and less fluid categories, some in the West have sought guidance in the techniques and views related to the dying process cultivated in other cultures, particularly Tibetan Buddhism. This article considers such dynamics as they unfolded in research focused on the postmortem bodies of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in India. This article introduces the term thanato-technics to highlight the temporalities, imaginary or otherwise, evoked, enabled, and invested through the use of technologies to ascertain or conjecture about the intrasubjectivity of the dead and dying.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 6
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
- Differential effects of non-dual and focused attention meditations on the formation of automatic perceptual habits in expert practitioners Neuropsychologia July 21, 2018
- Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences August 27, 2013
- A randomized study of a novel Zen dialogue method for producing spiritual and well-being enhancement: implications for end-of-life care. Journal of Holistic Nursing December 21, 2010
- Mindfulness in Hospice Care: Practicing Meditation-in-Action Qualitative Health Research December 1, 2005
and 1 more in the library