In this revised esition, Thomas Attig tells tales of survival to illustrate the poignant suffering that the loss of a loved one entails. Dr. Attig shows how through grieving we meet daunting ...challenges, make choices, and reshape our lives forever. In so doing, he redefines grief as an active, coping process rather than a stage to be endured, or a problem to be overcome. The book's many valuable lessons inform and instruct a wide audience of clinicians, caregivers, friends and family members of bereaved persons, and those who seek a general, non-clinical perspective on their own experience of grief.This version includes updated references and a new introduction.
How is the memory of traumatic events, such as genocide and torture, inscribed within human bodies? In this book, Paul Connerton discusses social and cultural memory by looking at the role of ...mourning in the production of histories and the reticence of silence across many different cultures. In particular he looks at how memory is conveyed in gesture, bodily posture, speech and the senses – and how bodily memory, in turn, becomes manifested in cultural objects such as tattoos, letters, buildings and public spaces. It is argued that memory is more cultural and collective than it is individual. This book will appeal to researchers and students in anthropology, linguistic anthropology, sociology, social psychology and philosophy.
Parental bereavement is often considered one of the most harrowing life experiences. Yet, little is known about losing an adult child in older age. In this qualitative, descriptive study, nine ...interviews lasting 45 to 120 minutes were conducted with parents who were 65 years or older at the time of their adult child's death. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed by two researchers independently. Four main themes were identified: disbelief, injustice, uncertainty, and readjustment. The themes were then compared and contrasted with the extant literature to support validity of the findings. The results have implications for future research and practice.
With high mortality rates, it has been assumed that the poor in Victorian and Edwardian Britain did not mourn their dead. Contesting this approach, Julie-Marie Strange studies the expression of grief ...among the working class, demonstrating that poverty increased - rather than deadened - it. She illustrates the mourning practices of the working classes through chapters addressing care of the corpse, the funeral, the cemetery, commemoration, and high infant mortality rates. The 2005 book draws on a broad range of sources to analyse the feelings and behaviours of the labouring poor, using not only personal testimony but also fiction, journalism, and official reports. It concludes that poor people did not only use spoken or written words to express their grief, but also complex symbols, actions and, significantly, silence. This book will be an invaluable contribution to an important and neglected area of social and cultural history.
•During the pandemic, countries adopted/still adopt the prohibition of mourning rituals.•Such measures can predispose to complicated grief syndrome/persistent complex bereavement disorder.•Screening ...programs should focus on maladaptive schemas, attachment styles, dysfunctional cognitions.•Prevention should use group or Internet-based psychoeducation on the bereavement process.•Prevention should increase people's awareness on attachment styles and cognition biases.
Mourning is a coping-with-loss stage that prevents grief from becoming pathologic, i.e., complicated grief (CG) syndrome and persistent complex bereavement disorder (PCBD), recently included in international classification systems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, to contain virus spread, several countries adopted/adopt the prohibition of mourning rituals (funeral ceremonies/visiting to cemeteries), so that people were/are unable to give their hospitalized relatives the latest goodbye. Such measures can lead vulnerable individuals to develop CG and PCBD. We critically discuss literature-based risk factors for and protective resources against the onset of these conditions since the start of the pandemic and analyze prevention strategies to inform public health programs.
We investigated lifetime suicide exposures and bereavement among a representative sample of American adults from the 2016 General Social Survey.
Questions on lifetime suicide exposures, bereavement ...and mental health status were administered to 1432 respondents. Suicide exposed and bereaved respondents were compared to non-exposed respondents on three different measures of mental health functioning with cross tabulations and means comparison tests.
51% of respondents had exposures to one suicide or more during their lifetimes, and 35% were deemed bereaved by suicide, having experienced moderate to severe emotional distress from their losses. Findings suggested more exposures and bereavements were associated with greater numbers of bad mental health days and more expectations of “having nervous breakdowns” but with no clear associations with CES-D scores.
These findings suggest suicide exposures and bereavement are far more pervasive than commonly thought, with more than half of the population exposed and a third bereaved. Health professionals need to more actively assess for suicide exposures and bereavements, and be vigilant for significant impacts of suicide even when the suicide decedent is not a first degree family relative, helping to reduce the mental health distress presently associated with these experiences.
•Based on 1,432 2016 GSS respondents we found 51% acquainted with one or more persons dying by suicide.•35% of these people experienced moderate to extreme emotional distress from these deaths.•On average these bereaved were 14 years past their losses.•Yet, they still showed signs of mental health problems compared to the non-suicide-bereaved.•These findings suggest that suicide bereavement is far more widespread that commonly thought.
Objective
Recognizing important bereavement‐related needs among sudden loss survivors (e.g., suicide, overdose)—a population that is burgeoning and at risk for deleterious outcomes—is a critical task ...as needs may reflect modifiable grief‐related variables that can assist with post‐loss adjustment.
Methods
Latent profile analysis was used among 347 sudden loss survivors to (a) identify distinct patterns of needs among survivors of sudden loss, (b) assess predictors of such profiles, and (c) investigate differences in profiles in terms of bereavement outcomes.
Results
Four classes of bereavement‐related needs were identified: a low needs class, a moderate needs‐spiritual class, a moderate needs‐relational class, and a high needs (HN) class. Clear differences emerged between need classes with the HN class evidencing the greatest level of grief and mental health sequelae.
Conclusion
Tending to bereavement‐related needs is critical, as they indicate the degree of distress and reflect modifiable therapeutic variables.
Grief researchers are concerned that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will precipitate increases in severe, persistent, and disabling grief, termed prolonged grief disorder or ...persistent complex bereavement disorder. We recently demonstrated that higher grief levels are experienced after COVID-19-related bereavement than natural bereavement. Death circumstances during the pandemic (e.g., reduced social support, limited opportunities for death rituals) may also hamper the grief process for non-COVID-19-related bereavement, yet no quantitative research has specifically addressed this issue.
To test if grief severity is higher during than before the lockdown after non-COVID-19-related bereavement.
A cross-sectional survey including questions on sociodemographic and loss-related variables and a grief measure was conducted among a sample of 1600 bereaved adults (78% females), participating before (n = 731) or during (n = 869) the pandemic, including people who had experienced a loss before the pandemic (n = 456) or during the pandemic (n = 200) recently (five months ago or less).
No significant differences emerged between grief levels in people participating before or during the pandemic. However, being recently bereaved during the pandemic elicited more severe grief than before it (d = 0.17; d = 0.18). Effects remained significant after controlling analyses for relevant loss-related variables.
Among all bereaved persons, grief severity was no different during the pandemic compared with before the pandemic. However, experiencing a recent loss during the pandemic elicited more severe acute grief reactions than before the pandemic, suggesting that dealing with loss may be more difficult during this ongoing health crisis.
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