How We Grieve: Relearning the WorldOxford University Press, 2010 M09 13 - 264 pages If we wish to understand loss experiences we must learn details of survivors' stories. The new version of How We Grieve: Relearning the World tells in-depth tales of survival to illustrate the poignant disruption of life and suffering that loss entails. It shows how through grieving we overcome challenges, make choices, and reshape our lives. These intimate treatments of coping with loss address the needs of grieving people and those who hope to support and comfort them. The accounts promote understanding of grieving itself, encourage respect for individuality and the uniqueness of loss experiences, show how to deal with helplessness in the face of "choiceless" events, and offer guidance for caregivers. The stories make it clear that grieving is not about living passively through stages or phases. We are not so alike when we grieve; our experiences are complex and richly textured. Nor is grieving about coming down with "grief symptoms". No one can treat us to make things better. No one can grieve for us. Grieving is instead an active process of coping and relearning how to be and how to act in a world where loss transforms our lives. Loss forces us to relearn things and places; relationships with others, including fellow survivors, the deceased, even God; and our selves, our daily life patterns, and the meanings of our life stories. This revision adds an introductory essay about developments in the author's thinking about grieving as "relearning the world." It highlights and clarifies its most distinctive and still salient themes. It elaborates on how his thinking about these themes has expanded and deepened since the first edition. And it places his treatment of those themes in the broader context of current writings on grief and loss. |
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actively anguish anticipatory grief appreciate behaviors believe bereavement Bill and Diane Bill’s Bobby Bobby’s death C. S. Lewis caregivers caring challenges Chapter Colin Murray Colleen comfort connection continue coping capacities daily David deceased develop Diane’s died Earl Earl’s Ed and Elise Ed’s effects Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Elise Elise’s experience extreme grief facets feel fellow survivors flourishing friends funeral Grief Counseling grief emotion grief reaction grieving persons grieving response helpless hope ideas impossible return individual interaction Jennifer John Bowlby Kathryn lives lose loss and grief Margaret Mark’s Martin and Louise meaning memories mother motivations mourn mourners Murray Parkes Myra Myra’s ourselves pain parents patterns physical present reality recognize relationships relearning the world reweaving riences Robert Lifton Robert Neimeyer seek self-concepts sense share Sheila social spiritual stories struggle suffering tasks things thinking tion understanding unique viable vulnerable wonders