Viewed in an expanded frame, the phenomena of grief and bereavement call for analysis in sociological, psychological, and psychiatric terms. In this article, the authors argue that a common theme in these accounts is that of the meaning of loss as expressed in both individual and collective attempts at adaptation. At a societal level, communal rituals, discursive practices, and local cultures provide resources for integrating the significance of loss for survivors and regulating the emotional chaos of bereavement. At an individual and interpersonal level, survivors struggle to assimilate the loss into their existing self-narratives, which are sometimes profoundly challenged by traumatic bereavement. Complicated grief can therefore be viewed as the inability to reconstruct a meaningful personal reality, an outcome to which individuals with insecure working models of self and relationships are especially vulnerable. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that grief can prompt personal growth as well as despair, augmenting rather than only reducing the survivor's sense of meaning.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Attig, T. (1996). How we grieve: Relearning the world. New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation (Vol. 2). New York: Basic Books.
3.
Braun, K. L. , & Nichols, R. (1997). Death and dying in four Asian American cultures. Death Studies, 21, 327-359.
4.
Campbell, J. (1988). Historical atlas of world mythology. New York: Harper & Row.
5.
Davies, B. (1987). Family responses to the death of a child. Journal of Palliative Care, 3, 9-15.
6.
Davies, B. (1999). Shadows in the sun. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
7.
Davies, B. , Chekryn-Reimer, J., Brown, P., & Martens, N. (1995). Fading away. Amityville, NY: Baywood.
8.
Davis, C. G. , Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Larson, J. (1998). Making sense of loss and benefiting from the experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 561-574.
9.
Doka, K. J. (2002). Disenfranchised grief (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
10.
Durkheim, E. (1965). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1912)
11.
Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things. New York: Pantheon.
12.
Freud, S. (1957). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (pp. 152-170). London: Hogarth.
13.
Guidano, V. F. (1991). The self in process. New York: Guilford.
14.
Hall, M. , & Irwin, M. (2001). Physiological indices of functioning in bereavement. In M. S. Stroebe, R. Hansson, W. Stroebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research (pp. 473-491). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
15.
Harré, R. , & Gillett, R. (1994). The discursive mind. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
16.
Horowitz, M. J. (1997). Stress response syndromes (3rd ed.). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
17.
Irish, D. , Lundquist, K., & Nelsen, V. (Eds.). (1993). Ethnic variations in dying, death, and grief. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
18.
Jacobs, S. (1993). Pathologic grief. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
19.
Janoff-Bulman, R. , & Berg, M. (1998). Disillusionment and the creation of values. In J. H. Harvey (Ed.), Perspectives on loss (pp. 35-47). New York: Brunner/Mazel.
20.
Kalischuk, R. G. , & Davies, B. (2001). A theory of healing in the aftermath of youth suicide. Journal of Holistic Nursing Practice, 19, 163-186.
21.
Klass, D. (1999). The spiritual lives of bereaved parents. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
22.
Lindemann, E. (1944). Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry, 101, 141-148.
23.
Martinson, I. , Davies, B., & McClowry, S. (1987). The long-term effects of sibling death on self-concept. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 2, 227-235.
24.
McCrae, R. , & Costa, T. (1993). Psychological resilience among widowed men and women. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement (pp. 196-207). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
25.
Milo, E. M. (1997). Maternal responses to the life and death of a child with developmental disability. Death Studies, 21, 443-476.
26.
Nadeau, J. W. (1997). Families making sense of death. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
27.
Neimeyer, R. A. (1998). Social constructionism in the counselling context. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 11, 135-149.
28.
Neimeyer, R. A. (2000). Searching for the meaning of meaning: Grief therapy and the process of reconstruction. Death Studies, 24, 541-557.
29.
Neimeyer, R. A. (2001a). The language of loss. In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Meaning reconstruction and the experience of loss (pp. 261-292). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
30.
Neimeyer, R. A. (Ed.). (2001b). Meaning reconstruction and the experience of loss. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
31.
Neimeyer, R. A. (2001c). Reauthoring life narratives. Israel Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 171-183.
32.
Neimeyer, R. A. (2002). Lessons of loss (2nd ed.). New York: Brunner Routledge.
33.
Neimeyer, R. A. , & Hogan, N. (2001). Quantitative or qualitative? Measurement issues in the study of grief. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stoebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research (pp. 89-118). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
34.
Neimeyer, R. A. , & Jordan, J. R. (2002). Disenfranchisement as empathic failure. In K. Doka (Ed.), Disenfranchised grief: New directions, challenges, and strategies for practice (pp. 95-117). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
35.
Neimeyer, R. A. , & Levitt, H. (2001). Coping and coherence: A narrative perspective on resilience. In R. Snyder (Ed.), Coping with stress (pp. 47-67). New York: Oxford University Press.
36.
Parkes, C. M. (1996). Bereavement (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
37.
Pasternak, R. E. , Reynolds, C. F., III, Schlernitzauer, M., Hoch, C. C., Buysse, D. J., Houck, P. R., et al. (1991). Acute open-trial nortriptyline therapy of bereavement-related depression in late life. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 52, 307-310.
38.
Prigerson, H. G. , Bierhals, A. J., Kasl, S. V., Reynolds, C. F., III, Shear, M. K., Day, N., et al. (1997). Traumatic grief as a risk factor for mental and physical morbidity. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 616-623.
39.
Prigerson, H. G. , Bierhals, A. J., Kasl, S. V., Reynolds, C. F., III, Shear, M. K., Newsom, J. T., et al. (1996). Complicated grief as a distinct disorder from bereavement-related depression and anxiety. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 1484-1486.
40.
Prigerson, H. G. , Bridge, J., Maciejewski, P. K., Beery, L. C., Rosenheck, R. A., Jacobs, S. C., et al. (1999). Traumatic grief as a risk factor for suicidal ideation among young adults. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 1994-1995.
41.
Prigerson, H. G. , Frank, E., Kasl, S. V., Reynolds, C. F., III, Anderson, B., Zubenko, G. S., et al. (1995). Complicated grief and bereavement related depression as distinct disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 22-30.
42.
Prigerson, H. G. , & Jacobs, S. C. (2001a). Caring for bereaved patients: “All the doctors just suddenly go....”Journal of the American Medical Association, 286, 1369-1376.
43.
Prigerson, H. G. , & Jacobs, S. C. (2001b). Diagnostic criteria for traumatic grief. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research (pp. 614-646). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
44.
Prigerson, H. G. , Maciejewski, P. K, Reynolds, C. F., III, Bierhals, A. J., Newsom, J. T., Fasiczka, A., et al. (1995). Inventory of complicated grief. Psychiatry Research, 59, 65-79.
45.
Prigerson, H. G. , Shear, M. K., Bierhals, A. J., Pilkonis, A. J., Wolfson, L., Hall, M., et al. (1997). Case histories of complicated grief. Omega, 35, 9-24.
46.
Prigerson, H. G. , Shear, M. K., Frank, E., & Beery, L. C. (1997). Traumatic grief: A case of loss-induced trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 1003-1009.
47.
Rando, T. A. (1995). Grief and mourning. In H. Wass & R. A. Neimeyer (Eds.), Dying: Facing the facts (pp. 211-241). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
48.
Reynolds, C. F., III , Miller, M. D., Pasternak, R. E., Frank, E., Perel, J. M., Cornes, C., et al. (1999). Treatment of bereavement-related major depressive episodes in later life. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 202-208.
49.
Romanoff, B. D. , & Terenzio, M. (1998). Rituals and the grieving process. Death Studies, 22, 697-711.
50.
Roos, S. (2002). Chronic sorrow. New York: Brunner Routledge.
51.
Rosenblatt, P. (2000). Parent grief. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
52.
Silverman, G. K. , Johnson, J. G., & Prigerson, H. G. (2001). Preliminary explorations of the effects of prior trauma and loss on risk for psychiatric disorders in recently widowed people. Israel Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 202-215.
53.
Stroebe, M. , & Schut, H. (1999). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23, 197-224.
54.
Tedeschi, R. , Park, C., & Calhoun, L. (Eds.). (1998). Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in the aftermath of crisis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
55.
van der Kolk, B. , & van der Hart, O. (1991). The intrusive past. American Imago, 48, 425-454.
56.
Walter, T. (1999). On bereavement: The culture of grief. Philadelphia: Open University Press
