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Grief: The Social Context of Private Feelings
Author(s) -
Rosenblatt Paul C.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1988.tb02077.x
Subject(s) - grief , ambivalence , disenfranchised grief , feeling , context (archaeology) , psychology , social environment , social psychology , casual , perspective (graphical) , psychotherapist , sociology , social science , paleontology , materials science , artificial intelligence , biology , computer science , composite material
Although the psychology of grief focuses on individuals, grief occurs in the context of social relationships and culture. The dynamic effects of the social and cultural context on individual grief are discussed from the perspective of symbolic interaction theory and family systems theory. Implications of these theories presented here include problems for the bereaved due to loss of a person who was an important part of the social context, the role of material objects in bereavement, problems when bereavement occurs in ethnically mixed close relationships, the effects of family dynamics in reaction to a loss, ambivalence of bereaved people toward social interactions, the value of casual social support in bereavement, the occurrence of misinformed professional prescriptions for the bereaved, and limits on our knowledge of what another may be feeling. The theoretical analysis leads to discussion of difficulties in providing social support and social services for the bereaved.