Abstract
Death and dying are still a taboo topic in Czech conditions. Those, who touch death in their profession and whose clients invite them to this the most intimate moment of all, know that although they witness a profound existential moment, it is not always a smooth, pleasant or even good ending. Dying can be long, painful, undignified, and can fulfill the dying and those around them with a mixture of questions. Personally, we may be going through the recent death of a close family member and it is different again from standing at the bedside of your client, posing as a professional and being "above it all" as it were.
Death has different faces and as attendants we experience good dying as well. They are families who can come together in this "sacred" moment, staying "on guard" and members ready to respond and, if possible, to fulfill their wishes, not just those of the dying. The family is together, the forces do not clash and they feel belonging. There are families, however, who are not capable of this ideal and experience pain, frustration and alienation from each other. In these moments it seems as if death and dying have no meaning, that we are here as some sort of freaks of nature that fate is playing with and we just waiting in pain. Logotherapy as a science enters this moment, a philosophy, a psychotherapeutic method, to lighten the heavy weight of dying it brings, to answer the questions we are afraid to voice, and to make its imprint even when the person is no longer with us.