Loss: the ultimate philosophical problem

This paper draws on Jan Zwicky’s claim in Lyric Philosophy that loss is the ultimate philosophical problem and Wittgenstein’s attitude to philosophy in his Culture and Value that: ‘philosophy ought really to be written only as a poetic composition’. This paper will enter the difficult territory of loss using poetry and reflections to engage loss as a spiritual challenge and perhaps one of the major forces shaping cultural ways. Death inescapably brings loss into life for those who remain after a death but loss has many other forms and is a persistent experience in living that touches every stage of the life journey. It is a philosophical problem rooted in common human experience from childhood on that has been addressed in a multitude of forms, conceptualizations, rituals, belief systems and religions. As a method, poetry is a way of inquiry that allows one to enter experience and meet the intensity of events, particularly loss. In her essay ‘Entering the Bird Cage: Poetry and Perceptibility’, Jane Hirschfield says that poetry allows us ‘to understand the world beyond the narrow self’ and to do so ‘it is necessary to be available to the unknown’ and loss moves experience into the unknown.     

Book Review of Counseling Children and Adolescents Through Grief and Loss

Book reviewed in this article: Counseling Children and Adolescents Through Grief and Loss by Jody J. Fiorini & Jodi Ann Mullen, 2006     

Role of Mental Simulations in the Weight Loss Process

Two experiments were conducted to verify the influence of various mental simulations on the effectiveness and persistence of weight loss processes. In study one, 40 female students (aged 19–27, M = 23) who were eager to lose weight were randomly assigned to one of four groups: positive outcome simulation, process simulations, mixed simulations (process followed by negative outcome), and control (no simulations). Students from the mixed and process simulation groups lost significantly more weight after five weeks than participants from the outcome simulation and control groups. A total of 106 females (aged 19–45, M = 29) participated in study two, in which five types of mental simulations were tested. Besides the images used in study one, process followed by positive outcome simulations and negative outcome simulations were implemented. Results showed that process followed by positive outcome simulations lead to the highest persistence in the weight loss process, while process followed by negative outcome simulations induced the greatest reduction in weight. Both studies revealed self-regulatory benefits from mental simulations in difficult and long-term personal goal attainment.     

Vague Expectation Value Loss

Vague subjective probability may be modeled by means of a set of probability functions, so that the represented opinion has only a lower and upper bound. The standard rule of conditionalization can be straightforwardly adapted to this. But this combination has difficulties which, though well known in the technical literature, have not been given sufficient attention in probabilist or Bayesian epistemology. Specifically, updating on apparently irrelevant bits of news can be destructive of one’s explicitly prior expectations. Stability of vague subjective opinion appears to need a more complex model.     

Loss Experiences In Disability Sport

Abstract

Sport scientists have started to amass a small body of knowledge on loss in sport. Viewing sport retirement from a loss framework is particularly appropriate when examining transitions out of disability sport because athletes with disabilities are at risk for facing unique losses when they lease sport (Martin, 1996; Wheeler, Malone, & Steadward, 1996). The purpose of this article is to discuss loss experiences in disability sport from psychological, social, and physiological perspectives.     

Framing Political Risks: Individual Differences and Loss Aversion in Personal and Political Situations

People are motivated to avoid losses. In the context of politics, studies consistently show that the threat of losses increases support for risky public policies more than the promise of gains. Here, we predict that this loss aversion is calibrated by individual differences related to one’s ability to accommodate resource loss, and we investigate how these individual differences moderate reactions to the threat of losses and the promise of gains. Results from large-N experiments consistently demonstrate that this moderation effect crucially depends on whether the resource loss relates to oneself or one’s group—whether the setting is personal or political. Consistent with classic assumptions, individuals with inferior abilities to cope with resource loss are more loss averse in personal settings. In political settings where group resources are threatened, effects reverse: Individuals with superior resources and a more central position within the group consistently respond more to the prospect of loss. As discussed, these findings have important implications for our understanding of why and for whom the threat of loss motivates risky personal and political choices. By consequence, the findings also shed novel light on the psychological underpinnings of recent risky political events.      

A Review of On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss

Book reviewed in this article: Elizabeth Kübler‐Ross and David Kessler (2005). On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss.     

Late-Onset Hearing Loss: Strategies for Effective Counseling

Late-onset hearing loss is one of the major chronic conditions experienced by older individuals. The term presbycusis is typically used when describing this condition. Presbycusis refers to many degenerative changes that affect older people's hearing. This article provides practical suggestions for working with persons with this condition.     

Gain/Loss Asymmetry and Riskless Choice: Loss Aversion in Choices among Job Finalists

Tversky and Kahneman (1991) extended the notions of reference points and gain/loss asymmetry to multiattribute choice tasks having alternatives that cannot be assigned explicit probabilities. Two experiments were designed to test these propositions in the context of choices among job finalists. In the first experiment, undergraduates (N= 82) were provided with attribute information on two job candidates, along with (incomplete) attribute information on a previous job incumbent. The results showed that the relative standing of the job finalists was evaluated from the reference point of the incumbent's performance on the non-missing attributes. Candidates representing the status quo (i.e., no change in performance on the non-missing attributes) were preferred over candidates representing a loss. However, candidates representing a gain were not preferred over candidates representing the status quo. In the second experiment, undergraduates (N= 74) received assessor training and then watched a demonstration of performance in one of two work samples. Participants told that the demonstration was one of excellent performance strongly preferred the status quo candidate (i.e., the one that performed equally well on the demonstration work sample). However, participants told that the example was one of poor performance were indifferent between the status quo and gain candidate. We conclude that the gain/loss asymmetry commonly found in risky choice can also be found in riskless choice tasks such as choosing among job finalists.     

Using a Gain/Loss Framework to Measure Impact: The Perceived Impact of Life Event Scale

The author describes three interconnected investigations focused on the development and psychometric evaluation of the Perceived Impact of Life Event Scale (PILES), a measure developed using a gain/loss framework for assessing the multidimensional impact of single life events. In Study 1 (N = 160), the author describes the item generation process and results of a pilot study. In Study 2 (N = 244), exploratory factor analysis suggested a 29-item scale with the four following gain/loss factors: existential, discretionary time, romantic relationship/sexual, and career and employment. In Study 3 (N = 244), confirmatory factor analysis indicated a three-factor model (26-item scale), and findings suggested convergent validity of the measure.     

Help‐Seeking Behaviors of African Americans After a Loss

We investigated attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, ethnic identity, and complicated grief symptoms among 86 African Americans after they experienced the death of a loved one. There were no significant correlations among ethnic identity, help‐seeking attitude, and complicated grief symptoms. Multiple regression analyses indicated that gender and education level predicted help‐seeking attitude, F(2, 84) = 4.64, p < .05, and that gender, education level, and religious affiliation predicted complicated grief symptoms, F(3, 79) = 3.73, p < .05. We explore the results, implications, and areas for future research. Investigamos las actitudes hacia la búsqueda de ayuda psicológica profesional, la identidad étnica y los síntomas de duelo complicado en 86 personas afroamericanas tras experimentar la muerte de un ser querido. No se hallaron correlaciones significativas entre la identidad étnica, la actitud de búsqueda de ayuda y los síntomas de duelo complicado. Los análisis de regresión múltiple indicaron que el sexo y el nivel de educación pronosticaron la actitud de búsqueda de ayuda, F(2, 84) = 4.64, p < .05, y que el sexo, el nivel de educación y la afiliación religiosa pronosticaron los síntomas de duelo complicado, F(3, 79) = 3.73, p < .05. Exploramos los resultados, implicaciones y áreas para investigaciones futuras.     

Territorial Loss as a Challenge for World Governance

Abstract

National governments have failed spectacularly to mitigate anthropogenic climate change and a sustainable approach to mitigation remains out of sight. This circumstance alone demonstrates the need for institutional reform. However, climate change is causing and will continue to cause large-scale loss and damage. Perhaps the most striking kind of that loss is territorial. Climate change induced sea level rise threatens not only vast coastal areas but also entire states. Therefore, mitigation is no longer sufficient. From the collective failure to mitigate climate change arises the collective duty to compensate. Compensating for territorial loss puts the spotlight on institutional deficiencies—which is why I explore them here. Specifically, I argue that (i) providing compensation for territorial loss is both morally required and politically advantageous and that (ii) it cannot be implemented effectively or efficiently without creating a global institution in charge of coordinating the process. Further, I (iii) make design recommendations for creating a global compensatory climate fund, (iv) situate my proposal within the debate on ideal and non-ideal theory, and (v) contend that the proposed institution would be a tool of world governance rather than a form of world government.     

Contributions of Loss Events to Loss Distress and Trauma Symptoms in Recently Resettled Refugee Women at Risk

This research examined contributions of loss events to loss distress and trauma symptoms (accounting for trauma events) for refugee women at risk. Participants (N?=?104) responded to the Multidimensional Loss Scale (loss events and distress) and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (trauma events and symptoms). Loss events contributed uniquely to loss distress (explaining additional 50.8% variance), and made a unique contribution to trauma symptoms (explaining additional 5.2% variance) approximately equal to trauma events. Appropriate response to psychic distress in refugee women at risk requires assessment of both loss and trauma and consideration of cultural differences in ways loss is expressed and meaning ascribed to symptoms.     

Childhood Interrupted: A Story of Loss,Separation, and Reconciliation

This essay presents a story of personal loss and childhood trauma experienced by the author in 1968. Written in autoethnographic form, the author narrates a particular time in his life when he lost his hearing and subsequently experienced “disrupted attachment”(Becker, 1997 Becker, G. (1997). Disrupted lives: How people create meaning in a chaotic world. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]) caused by forced separation from family on the day he began life at a residential school for deaf children. Forty-six years later, the author weaves together a narrative of loss and trauma followed by his own reflections, showing how he used writing conversation as a source of healing that allowed him reconcile with his past.     

The Goodbye Brochure: Helping Students to Cope With Transition and Loss

This article describes a brochure that has been used by various college personnel in their attempts to help students in coping with transition and loss. The brochure's content is presented, and its development, use, merits, and limitations are discussed.     

The Effects of Weight Loss Attempts, Exercise Initiation, and Dietary Practices on Health Related Quality of Life

This study (N = 98) randomly placed participants in either a higher protein or American Heart Association diet group with each group initiating an aerobic exercise program. Body composition (BC) was measured using four different methodologies (DEXA, BIA, skinfold, BMI) along with height and weight, while Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) changes were measured using the Medical Outcomes Short Form 36 (SF-36). There were no significant time/diet interactions in HRQOL scores, body fat measures, and weight with the exception of Role-Physical scores (p = .006) with posttest scores higher in participants in Diet 1. Role-Physical scores changed significantly in participants in Diet 1 (p = .0001) and Diet 2 (p = .026) with higher posttest scores in each group. Social functioning had a significant main effect for time in both groups with pretest scores in both diet groups lower than their respective posttest scores (p = .015). HRQOL pretest scores were not significantly different between groups at baseline (p = .56). ANOVA revealed no significant differences in average calories between groups (p = .88). Analysis revealed no differences in exercise in minutes (p = .66) nor statistically significant changes in BC or weight (p = .65). Conclusions: Improvements in HRQOL were demonstrated in two subscales related to physiological and psychological functioning. These novel findings add to literature suggesting that HRQOL, at least concerning social functioning, work and other daily activities (Role-Physical) may improve by initiating an exercise and dietary program even when weight loss or BC improvements have been unsuccessful.     

Meanings of Loss Among Japanese Suicide Bereaved: Content Analysis of Open-Ended Responses1

Although the importance of meaning-making among suicide bereaved has been reported, the detailed contents of the process remain unclear. This study aimed to identify the content categories of sense-making and benefit-finding in Japanese suicide loss survivors. We conducted content analysis of responses to open-ended questions in 99 participants. The results indicated that sense-making activities comprised seven categories, including Deceased was relieved from pain and Suicide is inevitable in modern society. Benefit-finding also comprised eight categories, such as Treat others with compassion and Live one day at a time with gratitude. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of sociocultural contexts of suicide postvention.     

Feelings of Loss in Response to Divorce: Assessment and Intervention

This article presents a cognitively based model to use as a basis for assessment and intervention strategies for assisting individuals to cope with feelings of loss they may experience in response to divorce.     

Suicide,Loss, and Mourning

ABSTRACT: The intensive treatment of six suicidal patients has been used to explore the relationships among object loss, the mourning process, and suicide. These relationships may be condensed in two propositions: (a) suicidal behavior stems from an arrested grief reaction in which the subject is unable to complete the process of mourning for a lost object; and (b) the suicide's pathological loss reaction is brought about by developmental defects, primarily deficiencies in self-love and individuation. The suicidal subject's mournïng reaction is arrested in one or more of the first three stages of grief: shock, protest, or detachment from the lost object.