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

ByEster Holte Kofod, Allan Køster

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
ByThomas Fuchs

chapter Chapter 2|15 pages

What is longing? An existential-phenomenological investigation

ByAllan Køster

chapter Chapter 3|14 pages

Grief, commitment and the sense of community

ByLine Ryberg Ingerslev

chapter Chapter 4|15 pages

Distorted space, unmoving time—aesthetic practices in bereavement

ByKathleen Higgins

chapter Chapter 5|15 pages

Grief and the photograph

A phenomenology of captured time and its resonances with death
ByKirsten Jacobson

chapter Chapter 6|15 pages

The interpersonal and social dimensions of emotion regulation in grief

ByMatthew Ratcliffe, Eleanor A. Byrne

part 2|93 pages

The normative mediation of experiences of loss

chapter Chapter 8|18 pages

Poetic representations of parental grief

ByEster Holte Kofod

chapter Chapter 9|12 pages

Grieving as relearning the world is inherently social

ByThomas Attig

chapter Chapter 10|13 pages

Grief dynamics and gendered expectations on expressions of grief

ByLeeat Granek

chapter Chapter 11|13 pages

The oughtness of grief

Ontological, cultural and existential perspectives
ByAlfred Bordado Sköld, Svend Brinkmann

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

From ineffability and cultural taboo to meaning

Making sense of sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of deceased loved ones
ByEdith Maria Steffen

part 3|51 pages

Social frameworks of grief

chapter Chapter 13|17 pages

Collective grief

Mourning rituals, politics and memorial sites
ByBrady Wagoner, Ignacio Brescó de Luna

chapter Chapter 14|15 pages

“A grief more deep than me”—on ecological grief

ByMikkel Krause Frantzen

chapter Chapter 15|15 pages

Finding solace in nature

A protestant/secular sensibility?
ByTony Walter