ABSTRACT
In late modern western society, psychological theorizing has largely replaced other belief systems such as religion in explaining and managing personal experiences (Kivivuori, 1992), also bereavement (Clark, 1999). In this chapter, I intend to challenge the currently dominant psychological understanding of suicide bereavement as (purely) an individual’s ‘inner’ experience by pointing out that even if people feel that their experiences are thoroughly true and authentic, talking about bereavement – in research occasions or otherwise – is an utterly social action in which people use culturally and historically specific resources that construct moral orders.
