China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Grief
Published in Lisa Zammit, Georgeanne Schopp, Relational Care, 2022
Lisa Zammit, Georgeanne Schopp
Bereavement and mourning are frequently used interchangeably, but they are distinctly different. Bereavement is a normal reaction to an abnormal loss. It refers to the period of grief and mourning after death. The length of bereavement is influenced by how close the individual was to the deceased, or whether the death was expected. Bereaving the “year of firsts” describes initial experiences surviving holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. without the deceased. Identity changes from spouse to widow, child to orphan, etc.
Social status and disadvantage
Published in S. Alexander Haslam, Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Society, 2020
Catherine Haslam, Jolanda Jetten, Tegan Cruwys, Genevieve Dingle, S. Alexander Haslam
Yet despite the recognition that identity change and/or loss tends to have negative consequences for health and well-being, it turns out that group identification also plays a key role in protecting people against these negative consequences. In particular, this is because the negative consequences of identity change will generally be limited when individuals are able to join a new group and thereby take on a new social identity. Here the new sense of identification that this affords – and the various positive consequences that flow from this (as discussed in Chapter 2) – will tend to counteract the sense of identification that has been lost. For instance, threats to well-being will be minimised if employees quickly take on the identity of a new work team when their old work team is disbanded, or if university students quickly identify as a university student after losing their secondary-school identity. More generally, an important way in which people protect long-term well-being in the face of identity loss is by joining groups to help them adjust to and ‘get over’ the loss. Speaking to this point, and as we will discuss in later chapters, support groups are widely recognised as helping people cope effectively with such things as bereavement, injury, illness, and trauma (Wuthnow, 1994).
Suicide in Doctors and Its Sequelae
Published in Clare Gerada, Zaid Al-Najjar, Beneath the White Coat, 2020
Bereavement is a lonely experience, more so following a suicide. It is made more complex if those bereaved following the suicide of a doctor work in the same health system as their dead friend, colleague or relative. All parties (the dead and the survivors) might have both a personal and professional relationship with local services. This makes it difficult to untangle where responsibility might lie, especially if the lead clinician is also a personal friend or close colleague. Saying this, it is amazing how many bereaved individuals channel their grief into creativity – helping to prevent others from being in a similar situation.47
Vibrant death: A posthuman phenomenology of mourning, by Nina Lykke
Published in Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2022
Kerri Mozessohn, Rhea Ashley Hoskin
Within Western society, excessive mourning is considered a diagnosable disorder, with a one-year grief period regarded as healthy bereavement (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). Rooted in Western, colonial and patriarchal notions of health that rely on productivity and suppression of emotions, this healthy timeframe creates unrealistic mourning expectations that prevent individuals from experiencing a full range of mourning or reconnecting with their loved one. Vibrant Death: A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning disrupts this “Western pathologizing of excessive mourning” (p. 7) by challenging notions of human superiority (i.e., that non-human lives are somehow disposable), Christian and Cartesian dualisms (i.e., soul/matter, mind/body dichotomies), secular scientific beliefs (i.e., heavy reliance on materialism and physical reality) and linearity of time to create a new ontology of death.
The rollercoaster model of the bereaved caregiver
Published in Progress in Palliative Care, 2021
Meg Moorhouse, Margaret O’Connor
The timing of the introduction of the Rollercoaster Model into the therapeutic process is important. It seemed most helpful to introduce it within the first few weeks or months of bereavement and describe the different aspects of the diagram in language familiar to the bereaved. The early period of bereavement is when the chaos and business of the recent dying experience and rituals of funerals have eased, but some of the carer experience still dominates, often with traumatic intrusive images and difficult memories. It is also when the unreality and numbness is wearing off and profound grief is just emerging. Often in this shocked and despairing state the bereaved are attempting to take stock of their new realities, wondering who they are and what their lives are going to look like.11 Once trust is established and emotional processing has commenced, alongside a reduction in arousal and some catharsis of distress, the counsellor might assess that the use of this visual and educative tool as a supportive intervention technique. However, even if bereaved carers describe its helpfulness, further empirical evidence is required to demonstrate this.19
Caregiving for Parents Who Harmed You: A Conceptual Review
Published in Clinical Gerontologist, 2021
Jooyoung Kong, Anne Kunze, Jaime Goldberg, Tracy Schroepfer
Adult survivors of childhood maltreatment at the hand of a parent are also at heightened risk for disenfranchised grief, which can occur when an individual experiences a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, socially validated, or mourned in the expected way (Doka, 1999). As the death of a parental abuser can be considered a socially unspeakable or stigmatized loss (Brown, 2012), these individuals may be denied the legitimacy and freedom of expression that comes with their grief reactions (Doka, 1999). When an abusive parent dies, others might assume the survivors had a normative/loving relationship with the deceased parent or idealized them, resulting in the minimization/misinterpretation of the survivor’s often conflicted feelings (Brown, 2012). According to Brown (2012), “It is almost easier to tell people that you were abused as a child than to admit to the complicated feelings you have about the abuser’s death” (p. 120). For example, a well-meaning person who is aware of the abuse history might say, “But I thought you hadn’t spoken to your mother in years” or “From what I know about your dad, I thought you would be relieved that he had died.” In reality, however, the survivor may be confronted with and surprised by the complexities of their own reactions – from love and yearning, to anger and indifference (Brown, 2012; Doka, 1999). Individuals experiencing disenfranchised grief often become isolated in bereavement and are at increased risk of complicated grief (Doka, 1999).