Description
Personal Grief Rituals presents a new model for how bereaved individuals can create unique expressions of mourning that are tailored to their psychological needs and grounded in memories and emotions specific to the relationship they lost.
This book examines cultures across the world and throughout history to shed light on how humanity has always turned to grief rituals and how custom can stifle one’s pursuit of healthy and meaningful mourning. Contemporary psychological research, most notably attachment theory, provides an in-depth understanding of how each individual’s subjective experience of loss varies and why complicated bereavement may emerge. Richly detailed psychotherapy case studies exemplify innovative strategies for designing personal grief rituals. Where one person may visit an old haunt to express sorrow, another might use symbols to strengthen their connection to the deceased, and still another could cast aside vestiges of the past.
Personal Grief Rituals is an excellent resource for professionals, students studying the psychology of loss, or anyone hoping to carve a new path through their own grief and mourning.
Table of Contents
1. Cultural Grief Rituals and the Mourning Process: An Anthropological Perspective 2. Absence-and-Presence: The Subjective Experience of Loss, Grief, and Mourning 3. Designing Personal Grief Rituals 4. Confirming Absence: Rituals that Facilitate Acceptance of Loss 5. Expressing Grief: Rituals that Expand and Limit Emotional Experiences of Loss 6. Continuing Bonds: Rituals that Create an Enduring Connection 7. Moving Forward: Rituals that Embrace New Life
