ABSTRACT
When someone close to us dies, we lose them, we lose part of ourselves, and we can also lose many of our customary cognitive and emotional ways of functioning. Many survivors find themselves traumatised, confused, and bewildered in surreal, uncharted territory where everyday personal and social functioning is highly problematic. Fundamental assumptions can be shattered, and they find themselves having to adapt to a new reality – life without their loved one – at a time when physical and mental resources are sorely depleted. The emotional maelstrom in which they find themselves can significantly impair their judgement, concentration, confidence, and ability to assess risks (Parkes 1995). Against this daunting and debilitating backdrop, bereaved people are often called upon to make arduous, emotionally charged, and costly consumer acquisition and disposition decisions. On the other hand, the routine and mundane consumer decisions that still have to be made underscore what Wright and Flemons (2002) term the ‘doubleness of death’, that sense of survivors having to wrestle with profound existential issues of life and death while simultaneously attending to the nuts and bolts of daily living. Grief occasioned by the loss of a close family member or acquaintance is obviously not the sole form of grief: those mourning the passing of a celebrity (Walter 1999), pet (Hirschman 1994, Wrobel and Dye 2003), brand (Muniz and Schau 2005), or cherished television series (Russell and Schau 2014) have also featured in both consumer and thanatological literatures, however the focus of this chapter are those who have been bereaved by the loss of a close personal loved one.
