The paradoxical nature of the grief experience

This paper develops the thesis that the grief experience attendant to loss by death is a natural phenomenon and that language has been used to obscure its nature as a process. The paradoxical nature of the grief experience refers to an expanded appreciation of its nature which can include a consideration of the survivor's own joy at being alive. A feeling of joy can occur consequent to allowing the more intense grief pain to be exposed and shared. Frequent references from playwrights and other well-known authors herein support the universal recognition of the above. The author has found these thoughtful individuals to constitute an important intellectual network for himself through the years.This paper was originally presented at the International Conference on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Department of Basic Psychoanalytic Research and Family Therapy, University of Heidelberg, West Germany, May 17, 1985.Appreciation is expressed to Betty Byfield Paul, L.I.C.S.W., Counseling Associates, Lexington, Massachusetts, for consultation and editorial review.     

The nature of grief: Loss of love relationships in young adulthood

Abstract

Grieving following the loss of a love relationship in young adulthood was examined. College students completed the loss version of the Grief Experience Inventory (GEI), another questionnaire, and an adaptation of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG). The results indicated that the more intimate the relationship had been, the greater the grief experienced. In addition, the more marriage had been considered, the greater the grief. Grief was disenfranchised primarily by family members, unless marriage had been considered. Few gender differences were seen, except that women both considered marriage and initiated the breakup more often. The specific feelings attached to the grieving were noted more often on the TRIG adaptation than on the GEI. The findings point to the significance of recognizing grief reactions in counseling and psychotherapy for depression in young adults.     

Anticipatory grief: The search for destiny

This paper explores the dynamics between a woman dying of cancer, the man she lived with for 37 years, and the clinician who worked with them during the final months of the woman's life. Psychoanalytic perspectives on transformational and transitional object-seeking as natural processes which aid the internalization of attachment to the one who is approaching death, the creation of a primary maternal preoccupation in the caretaker, the hospice as a holding environment, and the search for destiny as a metaphor for the work of anticipatory grief are integrated with the case-material.Presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting,Person, Culture and Religion Pre-session, November, 1991.     

The syndrome of traumatic grief

Traumatic grief is a common and debilitating syndrome whose clinical presentation is well recognized but whose diagnostic criteria have only recently been delineated. Though it shares features with major depressive disorder, adjustment disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder, none of these subsume the criteria set for traumatic grief, and the diagnostic overlap is limited in community samples. Furthermore, diagnosis of traumatic grief appears to have prognostic value for clinical course and treatment response among bereaved individuals. In the absence of empirically supported treatments of pathological grief, a new, manualized treatment for traumatic grief symptoms has been developed and is currently undergoing testing in a randomized controlled trial. The conceptual basis for Traumatic Grief Treatment (TGT) is presented, the structure of the treatment is outlined, and the primary clinical strategies employed are described.     

Measuring grief: A short version of the perinatal grief scale

Despite a considerable number of studies, there are two major drawbacks in the literature on grief and bereavement. One is a lack of adequate and generally agreed upon measures for assessing grief. The second is a lack of ability to predict from existing measures the likelihood of what has been termed chronic or pathological grief reactions. This paper reports the results of the development of a bereavement measure for the study of perinatal loss which attempts to address these gaps. The measure is specific to a pregnancy-related loss, although it has the potential for adaptation to use for other types of loss. Analysis of responses from 138 women has resulted in the reduction of the original measure from 104 to a more manageable and almost equally comprehensive and reliable 33 items. In addition, a factor analysis has produced three factors, two of which indicate the possibility for longer-term and more severe grief reactions. Because of its sound psychometric qualities and interesting factor structure, the measure shows promise of being useful for both research and clinical purposes.This research was funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01 H18431-04, with additional assistance from the Center for Social Research at Lehigh University. Dr. Potvin is supported by the Quebec Health Research Fund.     

The hidden grief of abortion

This article explores the possibility of dealing with grief reaction when counseling a woman who has undergone an abortion. It first defines what is meant by a grief reaction in this context, then proposes a model for understanding various degrees of grief reaction, and finally examines some of the factors which determine the severity of a grief reaction in the case of abortion.     

The suicide survivor's grief and recovery

While official estimates report approximately 30,000 completed suicides each year, some researchers claim the numbers range much higher. Each suicide has severe and prolonged effects on the family members and friends left behind. Those left behind, the survivors of the suicide, tend to experience a very complicated form of bereavement. This is due to the combination of the sudden shock, the unanswered question of "why," and possibly the trauma of discovering or witnessing the suicide. Survivors' grief reactions can become even more exacerbated by inappropriate responses from the community to the suicide. A mental health professional can help the survivor through this difficult grieving process by direct and indirect means.     

The Book of Job: A grief and human development interpretation

The Book of Job exemplifies, in both form and content, typical unconscious grief reactions. Both theory and case illustrations are used to interpret Job as a vivid portrayal of successful adaptation to 1) the psychological stresses of grief, 2) the human developmental opportunities inherent in grieving, and 3) the spiritual development thus made possible.     

The attribution of aggression and grief to body movements: The effect of sex-stereotypes

Forty-two adult subjects, 21 male and 21 female, were asked to rate 16 distinct movement expressions as to their expressiveness of aggression and grief. Each movement expressed anger or grief at one of four levels of diagnosticity. Of each movement two performances were selected, one by a male, the other by a female encoder. With higher levels of diagnosticity, higher ratings were given. The male encoder was rated higher in aggression than the female with movements at a high or moderate level of aggression, and lower than the female with movements at the lowest levels of diagnosticity. The female encoder was rated higher in grief than the male at all levels of diagnosticity.     

India's environment: The enclosure of nature and the nature of enclosure

This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, by Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992, 274 pages, £4.95 pb.

Nature, Culture and Imperialism: Essays on the Environmental History of South Asia, David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995, 376 pages, £19.50.     

The relativity of grief: Differential adaptation reactions of younger and older persons

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate the differential emotional and coping responses of 41 older (M = 66.5 years) and 48 younger (M = 23.5 years) respondents who had recently lost a close loved one to death. Respondents completed a questionnaire in which they gave an account of the death of their loved one, information about how they coped with this loss, and responses concerning their emotions pertaining to the loss. As predicted, older respondents reported a higher degree of account-making (i.e., story-like constructions) about their losses and confiding in close others than did younger respondents. Further, older respondents showed fewer negative and more positive responses than younger respondents. These results were interpreted to suggest that older respondents were less acutely devastated by their losses and are consistent with the idea that     

Sounding grief: The Severn Estuary as an emotional soundscape

This paper explores sound infused creative responses to grief and related emotions of loss and landscape in the context of the tidal Severn Estuary (UK) and its particular sonic qualities. We draw principally on the practice of artist Louisa Fairclough, linking to wider discussions of emotion, sound and the body, in shared autotopological explorations of self and family in landscape. Like other estuaries, the Severn Estuary is a deeply rich (in socio-ecological terms) landscape which includes the tidal liminalities of the lower reaches of the Severn river, the mid estuary, and the lower areas which merge into open sea. The whole estuary, in geomorphological, ecological, and related social terms, is particularly dynamic as it has the second highest tidal range in the world. This means that vast volumes of brackish water wash up and down the estuary in a series of rhythmic cycles which play across and between day, month and season, mixing physical spaces and processes (e.g. land-sea; salt-fresh water). This ceaseless ebb and flow brings marked spatial, visual and aural richness to the estuary and places along its shores. This includes the Severn bore which, when at maximum height, is a powerful tidal wave washing up the upper estuary and tidal river with a loud sonic richness. Owain Jones (geographer) has previously written on this landscape and its memorial emotional qualities in relation to his family history and challenged geographical self. Louisa Fairclough (artist) has re-turned to it as performative art practice, to sleep by the River Severn, and produces a series of works consisting of field recordings, drawings and a series of installations of expanded films. These use river sounds and vocal recordings to interact with the tidal landscape and its margins in creative expressions of grief. This paper sets out these works, their background, shared responses to the estuary, and explores in particular the sonic registers of the landscape which, for us, listen, and speak to, loss and trauma.     

The nature of humor in human nature: Cross-cultural commonalities

It is contended that humor is a universal, pan-cultural phenomenon. Humor theory is examined on superiority, psychoanalytic, and incongruity-resolution dimensions. Cross-cultural humor commonalities are derived from the literature; and genetic, biological, and social dynamics of humor are explored. Intercultural differences in the content domain of humor are noted. It is concluded that humor is an appropriate intervention for ethnically diverse clients, when used sensitively in the counselling process.