ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates how memoirs of loss and grief can support the bereaved. This study revolves around two main concepts: grief witnessing and bibliotherapy. It overviews definitions of the memoir to position the grief memoir in the wider context of life writing and also discusses the grief memoir in the context of other thanatological life-writing genres to trace what common features they share. The book then provides an overview of various forms of primary and secondary support in bereavement. It also discusses the survey data from multiple tasks that were designed to perform a grief-witnessing function and to assess if the bereaved are open to this form of grief support. The book addresses the ages-long practice of self-bibliotherapy that has been officially utilized as “bibliotherapy” in the clinical setting since at least the 1940s.
