Mortuary vitality. Empathic meaning of the experiences in the funeral services

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to address the experiences raised in the particular setting of mortuary care. The work is of a qualitative type, in which, from a phenomenological method, interviews are applied to funeral employees, whose analysis made it possible to form four metacategories: experiential action of the profession, experience of existing and dying, meaning in the experienced and function of posthumous experiences. The analysis of the experiences of the protagonists and the meaning of the care after death, gives an explanation of what life means, since the bond between employee and the deceased arouses feelings and reactions in the relationship with the other, the identification with him and how empathy transcends the limits of life and takes place in the face of death.