POSTMORTEM POLITICS

This article discusses the connection between the political behaviour model of bereavement in Israel and the ability of the military to preserve its hegemonic standing under a veil of secrecy unchallenged by civil criticism. After the War of Independence (1948), with its heavy military death toll, a model of hegemonic bereavement made its appearance. A nationalist/collectivist ideology geared to nation‐building fostered widespread support of government institutions and mobilized grief on its behalf. In this framework, the activities of bereaved parents were channelled by the state to public sites and commemoration practices, and bereavement was, in effect, nationalized. After the Yom Kippur War (1973), and following the Lebanese incursion of 1982, a political bereavement model became dominant. Parents assigned guilt for the death of their sons to the formulators of security policy – principally the Defense Minister and the Prime Minister – and engaged in media and political activities against the state. In the 1990s, following a revolution in the media and the law, the awareness of liberal values and the beginnings of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, bereaved parents whose sons had been killed in training accidents and military failures adopted a model of confrontation bereavement vis‐á‐vis the army. They engaged in public activity aimed at exposing the army to civilian criticism. The article looks at the three models and the responses of the military to each one. It appears that a close connection exists between the dominant bereavement model, the quality of army and societal relations in Israel, and the degree of transparency of the military.     

Immigrant intelligentsia and its second generation: Cultural segregation as a road to social integration?

This article deals with the recent wave of migration from the former USSR to Israel, analyses immigrant intelligentsias strategies of action in the public sphere. The authors argument is that by adopting a seemingly separatist course of action and founding educational, cultural, scientific, and political institutions inspired by traditions brought from the country of origin, what the immigrants actually do is try to integrate themselves into the host society as its distinctive but equal members. Thus it is the strategy of cultural segregation that enables the immigrant intelligentsia to occupy its own place in the multicultural mosaic of contemporary Israeli society.     

The Aging Of Grief: Parents' Grieving Of Israeli Soldiers

Abstract

This chapter examines long-term parental grief of soldiers within the context of the Israeli society. Parental grief is discussed along the life span, commencing at the immediate phase following the loss through the bereavement process in middle to late adulthood and its manifestations in aging. Interviews with a group of elderly bereaved parents whose sons were killed during military service give further support to previous findings regarding the notion that the passage of time has no diminishing effect on their grief nor does it relinquish their attachment to the deceased. With aging, there appears to be an increase in internalized involvement with the long-lost child, fears of fading memories, and the need to eternalize the deceased. In reviewing the past, parents reevaluate their coping with the loss and their relationship with the surviving children. The parents' preoccupation is twofold: On one hand, the strong attachment seems to continue in inner representations of the lost child, and, on the other, this preoccupation is enhanced externally owing to Israeli society's attitude toward dead soldiers. An intersection is therefore established between society and bereaved families. Grief is apparently a central theme in aging parents who are preoccupied with the “aging” of their grief rather than their own aging.     

The Place of Mysticism in Personal Commemorative Films of Bereaved Parents

This article sheds light on the central place of mysticism in the world of Israeli parents who have lost a child in battle or in a terror attack, and demonstrates how bereaved parents, by including mystical events in their narratives, try to find order, rationale, and purpose that will enable them to move on with their lives. The data are based on a thorough qualitative analysis of 20 personal commemorative films created or commissioned by bereaved parents.     

From Demonization to Identification: How Parents Who Lost Children in Terrorist Attacks Perceive the Attacker

The aim of this article is to examine how bereaved parents who lost children in terrorist attacks in Israel perceive the terrorist attack perpetrators. Forty bereaved parents were interviewed using a semistructured in-depth interview. The content analysis revealed a typology of reactions to the Arab attackers that included perceiving them as objects of anger, hate, and revenge; as demons; as negligible; and as people with whom they could identify. The way bereaved parents perceive the Arab attackers serves as a coping resource. Follow-up research to examine the efficacy of the different types of reactions towards attackers would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding of the coping process that bereaved parents experience.     

Support groups: A psychological or social device for suicide bereavement?

This paper examines the psychological studies of bereavement support groups as well as exploring the ways in which people talk about their participation in such groups after their family member's suicide. Rather than reflecting any universal human condition, talk about experiences is considered as a local and contextual social construction, which in this case takes place in qualitative interviews in the modernWest (Finland). The paper draws on a study of 16 interviews with bereaved parents and (adult) children, half of whom had attended a bereavement support group after their family member's suicide. The study makes a contribution to the research field of family suicide bereavement from which sociological analysis has been so far largely missing.     

Gender, Religion, and Feminism: The Case of Jewish Israeli Traditionalists

This article explores the issue of gender, feminism, and religion through a study of Jewish Israeli traditionalist ( masorti ) women. Based on the premise that feminist discourse and rhetoric have become widely accepted and disseminated (while sociocultural and political practices are far from fully implementing this discourse), the article asks how women who choose an identity that refuses to fall into the one-dimensional dichotomy that distinguishes between the category of the "secular-modern-feminist" and that of the "religious-traditional-subordinate" construct and negotiate their feminine identity, while exploring the varying ways in which this identity-construct interplays with these women's identity as members of an ethno-national collective. This exploration deals with issues of: feminist and Jewish traditionalist discourses; body, dress, and ritual; family, spousal relations, and personal security; and women in synagogue.     

Mizrahi haredism and Holocaust commemoration in Israel – a dynamic of critical national partnership

This article deals with the haredi position regarding the national memory of the Holocaust in Israel. The attitude of Mizrahi haredism to the Holocaust reflects a position of critical partnership in relation to Israel’s national symbols and, in fact, in relation to Zionist Israeli nationalism. On the one hand, it adopts the haredi world view with regard to national symbols in order to negotiate its place within Israeli nationalism. On the other, it employs the consensual messages embedded in national symbols to express a critical view in its negotiation for the place of Mizrahi haredism within Israeli society in general, and haredi society in particular.     

A new discourse on spirituality in public education. Confronting the challenges in a post-secular society

Australia is facing a new frontier in the educational discourse of spirituality as we transition into a globalised and post-secular society. Teachers are now faced with the question of how to respond to the intrinsic spiritual awareness of secondary school students and the subsequent inquiry process into matters of personal spirituality, meaning and worldview. In Independent and Catholic schools across Australia, spirituality has a dimension to learning and has a significant place in the curriculum and in the classroom, inculcated through pastoral care programmes and the teaching of religious education. However, in public schools, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This article highlights the importance of inquiry into spirituality in public education, through political discourse, and the potential for resurgence in exploring spiritual lived experience from a phenomenological perspective.     

Eternal Connection: An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Learning About Near-Death Experiences on Adult Grief

We examined the effectiveness of a near-death experience (NDE) psychoeducational group bereavement intervention in reducing distressing aspects and enhancing a growth aspect of grief among bereaved adults. Participants were 22 females and 2 males (2 African American, 3 Asian, 2 Latina/o, and 17 White non-Latina/o) ranging in age from 20 to 71, with a mean age of 35.3 years. In this experimental design, we randomly assigned 12 participants to the experimental group and 12 participants to the waitlist control group. Effect size findings based on Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist scores indicated modest to substantial benefits of the NDE learning module intervention for bereaved adults in the form of decreased panic behavior, blame and anger, and detachment and increased personal growth. Conclusions include that further research into the effectiveness of NDE-related psychoeducational programs with bereaved individuals is warranted.     

Bereavement Group Therapy in School: the role of a belief in a post‐death existence within adolescent development for the acceptance process of loss[1]

As adolescents move away from parents towards peer group support, they develop their sense of self through challenge and reaction against authority. The parent/ guardian stands as the authority, but if the rule‐imposing figure is unexpectedly taken away the progress towards a sense of self is affected. School provides a social context for normalcy, but rarely is support found for bereaved youngsters in school. Adolescents in bereavement group therapy are able to share their experiences and begin to confront their loss through discourse, and such an approach in school serves to prepare pupils for later in‐depth individual counselling to work on guilt and maladaptive behaviour. Beliefs of an after‐life existence, which move from literal to figurative motifs, serve as coping mechanisms to help guide the youth through towards an acceptance and a sense of hopefulness. A model is presented that is in‐keeping with the developmental stage of adolescence, that utilizes peers as a therapeutic resource — those who have similarly been bereaved of loved ones.

     

Network and mutual support for parents bereaved following the violent deaths of their 12- to 28-year-old children: A longitudinal,prospective analysis

Abstract

Social support provided by bereaved parents' networks was examined in this study. Seven dimensions of support were assessed over time. Of special interest to the investigators were the types and frequency of posttreatment contacts among bereaved parents who participated in an experimental support program. The study compared those who reported high versus low social support and high versus low numbers of network confidants on selected outcome and coping variables. The authors recruited a community-based sample of 171 bereaved mothers and 90 bereaved fathers whose 12- to 28-year-old children had died by accident, suicide, or homicide 4 months previously. Parents were randomly assigned to a 12-week bereavement program or control group. It was expected that intervention group parents would report more social network in involvement and greater satisfaction with support received than control group parents. This hypothesis was only partially supported. Only 20% of the parents who participated in the bereavement program remained in contact after the experimental program ended. Finally, significant differences detected between parents who reported high and low support were minimal and not sustained over time. The number of network confidants did not significantly affect the outcomes examined. However, in general, those with more confidants reported lower symptoms. Additional studies are needed to address these complex issues.     

Spiritual Distress and Depression in Bereavement: A Meaning-Oriented Contribution

One key focus of a meaning reconstruction model of bereavement concerns spiritual meanings attributed to the death, whether consoling or troubling. Specifically, previous studies in our research program suggest that religiously inclined violent death survivors are at risk for elevated levels of both bereavement distress and complicated spiritual grief, a crisis of faith following loss that refers to the erosion of the mourner’s relationship to God and/or the religious community. However, more research is needed to understand the convergence of depression and spiritual struggle in the context of violent and natural loss. In this study of a diverse sample of 59 American Christians bereaved less than 5 years, we sought to: (1) determine if individuals bereaved by homicide, suicide or fatal accident differed from those bereaved by natural causes in their levels of depression and spiritual coping; (2) investigate the relation between the latter constructs; and (3) ascertain if cause of death mediates the effect of religious coping on depression. We found that: (a) violently bereaved individuals endorsed more negative religious coping, and (b) depression was associated with greater spiritual struggle, particularly a sense of disrupted relationship with God. Contrary to expectations, positive religious coping was unrelated to post-loss depression, and cause of death did not mediate the relationship between spiritual coping and depressive symptomatology. A clinical case study concludes the article, illustrating the interweaving of spiritual and psychological distress in tragic bereavement, and their implications for a meaning-oriented grief therapy.     

I Am Yourself: Subjectivity and the Collective

This paper suggests that social and historical forces play an unconscious yet decisive role in our lives. Telling the story of a conversation between Israeli parents about the prospect of their children becoming soldiers, and of an analytic relationship between two Israelis, the paper aims to bring to light a hidden balance of power between family bonds and collective attachments. The paper uses ideas developed by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari in the field of critical theory to examine the ways in which families function as social agents, that is, as socializing institutions. It suggests that, as a result, in some situations, families may face a conflict of identifications, a dilemma between responsibility to kin and responsibility to the collective. If the dilemma commonly persists unheeded, it becomes painfully evident in extreme situations. Such is the case when parents are asked to allow their children to become soldiers, or when individuals strive to care for themselves against a binding ethics of communal and intergenerational responsibility. The paper examines the effect of the collective trauma underlying the dominant discourse of the Israeli society, and the hypercollectivity of the Israeli Kibbutz, in generating powerful unconscious conflicts that haunt subjective and family life. The paper argues that collective affiliations and consequently, collective politics are inseparable from individual psychology and interpersonal relations. It suggests that, for this reason, political awareness and political exchange can play a crucial, liberating role in the therapeutic relationship, and life in general.     

Neuroticism and attachment insecurity as predictors of bereavement outcome

Adult attachment dimensions as well as the personality trait neuroticism have been shown to be related to psychological adjustment after bereavement. No investigations so far have studied the relative contribution of these constructs to grief and depression. In our study of 219 bereaved parents, the two adult attachment dimensions, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, were compared to the personality trait neuroticism in predicting psychological adjustment. The attachment dimensions explained a unique part over and above neuroticism, but contrary to expectations, neuroticism explained more variance than attachment dimensions. Implications are discussed.     

The effects of preparedness for suicide following the death of a young adult child

Suicide deaths are often viewed as sudden and unexpected. Research examining bereavement responses to suicide are generally set within this conceptual framework. Twenty-two parents were interviewed about their bereavement experience following the suicide death of a young adult son or daughter. Data analyzed using narrative methods revealed the concept of preparedness. Three distinct preparedness narratives were identified, termed turbulent-relief, tragedy, and reflective plots. The data presented here highlights the way in which these different situations influence the resultant grief. Understanding preparedness for suicide assists in explaining the variety of grief responses in parents bereaved in this manner.     

Does differential social support cause sex differences in bereavement outcome?

A study of a sample of bereaved and married individuals tested the prediction from stress theory that sex differences in bereavement outcome are due to differences in social support extended to the bereaved. Previous research had established that compared to same‐sex married controls, widowers suffer greater health deterioration following the death of a spouse than widows. Although there is some evidence that widows receive more social support than widowers, it has never been tested empirically whether differential social support is responsible for the sex difference in bereavement outcome. Two sets of tests were conducted to examine these hypotheses: first, sex differences in bereavement outcome and in the social support perceived by the bereaved were assessed by means of sex×marital status ANOVAs on depressive symptomatology, loneliness and social support; second, an ANCOVA was used to assess whether the marital status×sex interaction on distress was substantially reduced or eliminated when social support was used as a covariate. Although there was evidence of the expected sex differences in bereavement outcome and social support, there was no evidence that social support mediates the sex differences in bereavement outcome. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facilitating Individuation Processes in Supervision Groups Comprised of Co-Therapists Conducting Group Therapy with Bereaved Parents

Helping Israeli bereaved parents work through losses and anger poses great emotional challenges for group therapists. Separation-individuation becomes an issue for both mourners and conductors alike. Supervision groups composed of such co-therapists often go through unique stages in the course of their development. The conflict between a defensive belonging to a dyadic subgroup with their co-therapist on the one hand, and involvement with the supervision group and its leader on the other, are the main reasons for this uniqueness. In these stages, special difficulties in the co-therapist's separation/individuation may be observed and furthered. An important emotional function we call reverse parallel process can be activated in supervision groups, and can eventually influence the therapy. It is achieved in the supervision through the containment and working through of difficult emotions disowned by the therapy group. What seemed to be an obstacle to the group's development, if processed by the co-therapists, can enable patients to work through their difficulties and improve their functioning. If, on the other hand, the co-therapists' separation/individuation development is faulty, containment dysfunction may burden the receptiveness and working through of dreadful projections, and result in massive acting-out. The rich Israeli experience in this field could contribute to cope with similar group situations.