ABSTRACT
Harris explores the foundational perspectives of grief, and how it is an instinctually programmed response to all types of losses, not just those that occur as the result of death. This chapter illustrates how early experiences in life will, to a large degree, determine how grief is experienced and expressed. Starting in childhood individuals begin to organize schema, which reflect all that a person assumes to be true about the world and the self; it refers to the assumptions and beliefs that create a sense of security, predictability, meaning, and purpose to life. As a result, the experience of a significant life event that does not conform to our beliefs can throw us into a state of disequilibrium, and the trauma, shock, and anguish of significant losses can challenge our fundamental assumptions about the world. Individuals must then find ways to make meaning of the life events that have been disruptive through a “reweaving” process that incorporates the new experiences into the existing life narrative so that the world is once again coherent. This process is inseparable from the social context, as experiences are filtered through social norms and structures that individuals identify with and/or reside within.
