ABSTRACT

This innovative volume examines the phenomenological, existential and cultural dimensions of grief experiences. It draws on perspectives from philosophy, psychology and sociocultural studies to focus on the experiential dimension of grief, moving beyond understanding from a purely mental health and psychiatry perspective.

The book considers individual, shared and collective experiences of loss. Chapters explore the intersections between the profound existential experiences of bereavement and how this is mediated by sociocultural norms and practices. It points to new directions for the future conceptualization and study of grief, particularly in the experiential dimension.

Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, this important book will appeal to academics, researchers and students in the fields of death and bereavement studies, wellbeing and mental health, philosophy and phenomenological studies.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|92 pages

Phenomenology and its application to grief and bereavement

chapter Chapter 1|14 pages

Grief, melancholy, and depression

An existential phenomenology of reactions to transience

chapter Chapter 5|15 pages

Grief and the photograph

A phenomenology of captured time and its resonances with death

part 2|93 pages

The normative mediation of experiences of loss

chapter Chapter 8|18 pages

Poetic representations of parental grief

chapter Chapter 11|13 pages

The oughtness of grief

Ontological, cultural and existential perspectives

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

From ineffability and cultural taboo to meaning

Making sense of sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of deceased loved ones

part 3|51 pages

Social frameworks of grief

chapter Chapter 13|17 pages

Collective grief

Mourning rituals, politics and memorial sites

chapter Chapter 15|15 pages

Finding solace in nature

A protestant/secular sensibility?