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Memory Healing Processes and Community Intervention in Grief Work in Africa
Author(s) -
Nwoye Augustine
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.297
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0814-723X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.2005.tb00662.x
Subject(s) - grief , transformative learning , performative utterance , project commissioning , intervention (counseling) , psychology , phenomenon , sociology , publishing , psychotherapist , aesthetics , developmental psychology , epistemology , political science , art , philosophy , psychiatry , law
Western literatures on bereavement acknowledge the tendency to pathological grieving among some bereaved persons. The phenomenon of pathological mourning, however, is rare in Africa because of the presence of coherent and transformative rituals of mourning. This article argues that such rituals and performative experiences heal by addressing four principal aspects of the memory of the bereaved individual. The article elaborates on the content, process, symbolic meanings and clinical potency of these rituals.