Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Loss and Grief Aging Survival
Loss and Grief Aging Survival
Loved One
Employment
Home
Income
Freedom
According to Kubler-Ross a person simultaneously
experiences two of the stages at any given time.
Understanding Loss
(Rando, 1984)
Avoidance: Shock, denial, disbelief, confusion,
disorganization.
Anticipatory Mourning
(Rando, 2000)
The phenomenon encompassing seven generic operations:
Grief
Mourning
Coping
Interaction
Psychosocial reorganization
Planning
Balancing conflicting demands
Facilitating an appropriate death (p. 51)
Disenfranchised Grief
(Doka, 2002)
According to Doka: this grief is experienced in
connection with a loss that is not socially
acknowledged, publicly shared, or supported through
usual rituals. The significance of the loss is either not
recognized or the relationship between the deceased
and the bereaved is not socially sanctioned, the person
suffering the loss is given little or no opportunity to
mourn publicly. It is experienced when the relationship
is not recognized (lovers, ex-spouses, same-sex
partners, close friends), when the loss itself is not
recognized (stillbirth, miscarriage, abortion, adoption,
pet loss), when the griever is not recognized (very
young, very old, developmentally disabled). The
manner of death itself can be disenfranchising
(murder, suicide, AIDS). When such deaths are treated
as less than significant losses, the process of grieving
becomes more difficult.
Complicated Grief
(Worden, 2001)
Chronic Grief: One that is prolonged, is excessive in
Case Study
Mr. and Mrs. B. have been married for 50 years.
They have been in good health and have been
enjoying retirement (traveling, seeing their
grandchildren and sleeping until noon!)
Both Mr. and Mrs. B. will be turning 70 this year and
the family are planning a BIG surprise party.
One morning Mrs. B. wakes up and she can not
move the left side of her body. Mr. B. calls an
ambulance and the family physician. Mrs. B. is
taken to the hospital.
Who Dies?
(Levine, 1982)
How much of what we call grief is the
experience of previous loss? And how do
we allow such grief not to be a motivator
for our life? How do we get in touch with
that deep pain, that place of loss that
creates a fear of life itself, our doubt in
ourselves about our ability to deeply
experience the world because we so fear
loss and change?
Bibliography
Gehlert, S., & Browne, T.A. (2006). Handbook of Health
Social Work. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Levine, S. (1982). Who Dies? An Investigation of
Conscious Living and Conscious Dying. New York:
Anchor Books.
Kubler-Ross, E. (1973). On Death and Dying. New
York: Routledge.
Kubler-Ross, E., and Kessler, D. (2005). On Grief and
Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the
Five Stages of Loss. New York: Scribner.