Summer 2009
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Inside Summer 2009
Volume 28
Editorial
Martin Newman
Articles
Continuing bonds after bereavement: a cross-cultural perspective
Christine Valentine BA MSc PhD
Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
The ways in which eastern and western cultures grieve their dead are often contrasted. Eastern cultures are seen to place greater value on traditional ritual and ceremony that, it is argued, serve to create a lasting, and comforting, bond with the deceased. By contract, western societies are seen to be much more materialist and individualist. This article takes a cross-cultural look at responses to death and loss in the UK and Japan, both post-industrial societies but with very different cultural heritages. Based on interviews with bereaved people in both countries, it finds some surprising similarities, as well as differences, between and within each culture, challenging notions of a typically British or Japanese way of grieving.
Never a simple journey: pregnancy following perinatal loss
Joann O’Leary PhD MPH MS
Parent-infant specialist, Minnesota, USA
More than half of families who experience the death of an infant, either pre-birth or shortly after, go on to have another pregnancy. But the psychological impact of the previous loss may not be acknowledged by family members, friends and care-givers. Parents may experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; they may fail to attach to the new child. This article outlines the fears commonly reported by parents who have a second pregnancy after loss, and their struggles to come to terms with the coming birth of the new baby in the shadow of the death of its sibling. It goes on to describe the pregnancy after loss (PAL) group set up by the author and a colleague that uses family education methods to help these parents acknowledge and overcome their fears and build healthy bonds with their new baby.
From vulnerability to resilience: where should research priorities lie?
Margaret Stroebe PhD
Professor of psychology, Utrecht University
Recent decades have seen a shift in the focus of bereavement research from the mental and physical health consequences of bereavement to the exploration of the protective qualities that help people cope with loss. In this paper Margaret Stroebe reviews the literature produced by both camps and concludes that the pendulum may have swung too far. The literature indicates that the vast majority of bereaved people are, indeed, resilient and will cope without intervention. But policy-makers and health and social care practitioners need also to know that bereavement is associated with excess risk of early death and physical and psychological health problems. Psycho-social intervention should focus on such ’at-risk’ groups.
Death in the armed forces: casualty notification and bereavement support in the UK military,
Paul Cawkill BSc MSc MA CPsychol
Senior psychologist, Ministry of Defence, UK
Media coverage has kept the current UK military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan firmly in the public eye, and most particularly the inevitable tragic consequences of such involvement – the injuries and fatalities suffered by our service personnel. But the general public is possibly less aware of how the UK armed forces deal with the aftermath of fatalities, especially with respect to the bereaved families. This article gives a brief overview of the casualty notification process and subsequent bereavement support offered by the military, together with some recent developments in the Army, and collaboration with external bereavement agencies.
Bereavement in the Arts
The year of magical thinking: Joan Didion and the dialectic of grief
Frank Brennan MBBS FRACP PAChPM
Palliative care physician, Calvary Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Michael Dash BA DipEd Dip Couns
Bereavement counsellor, Calvary Hospital, Sydney, Australia
In late 2003, while their daughter lay critically ill in hospital, American writer Joan Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunne died suddenly. Theirs had been a marriage of great intimacy and love, and she was completely engulfed by grief. Nine months later, she started to write about the first 12 months of her bereavement. Raw, insightful and challenging, the resulting book, The Year of Magical Thinking, presents a vivid portrait of her journey. This article reviews the book and goes on to explore how Didion’s account of her experience reflects past and current theories of grief and bereavement.
Plus:
First person
An inconvenient grief
Jill Tunstall with Ruth Worgan
Spotlight on practice
Songs of loss and living
Bob Heath
Webwatch
Suicide and the internet
Amanda Aitken
Abstracts
Denise Brady
Book reviews
Winter 2008
Death abroad
Amanda Aitken
Summer 2008
Self-help for phobias and panic disorders
Michael Fullana, Isaac Marks
Spring 2008
Bereavement in schools
Amanda Aitken
Index up to Spring 2009
(Index to Volumes 12-28) |
