Resumen de The challenges of final conversations: dialectical tensions during end-of-life family communication

Maureen P. Keeley, Mark A. Generous

• This study examines how participants recall the challenges they encountered during final conversations they had with a family member who has since died. We use relational dialectics as a theoretical framework to interpret participants’ responses. The dialectical tensions evident in these conversations are influenced primarily by a chronemic pressure: the impending death. The overarching tensions discovered were acceptance–denial and openness–closedness (including expression of emotion–concealment of emotion). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.