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What's Happening to Mourning?
Author(s) -
Craib Ian
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.1995.tb00740.x
Subject(s) - happening , psychology , grief , meaning (existential) , product (mathematics) , psychoanalysis , process (computing) , psychotherapist , social psychology , geometry , mathematics , performance art , computer science , art history , operating system , art
The paper attempts to show the way in which psychotherapy can become caught up in wider social processes that change the meaning of psychotherapeutic work in a way of which we are not always aware. The process of mourning is taken as an example; the classic theories of mourning are examined and the way they have changed over the last thirty years is discussed. It is argued that the changes have been a product of social change rather than a deeper understanding of grief, and that unless we are aware of this, psychotherapy can turn into an instrument of social control.