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Emotion, Palliative care

Bereavement and grief

An archive trawl relating to bereavement and grief.

05 December 2019

Some resources on the psychology of bereavement and grief from The Psychologist and Research Digest...

PsychCrunch episode 32: How to face grief

‘You can’t really study grief without studying love’
Our editor Jon Sutton hears from Mary-Frances O’Connor, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, about her new book The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How we Learn from Love and Loss.

‘These people all looked within themselves’
Elaine Kasket, Counselling Psychologist and author, meets Bjørn Johnson: co-director of the BAFTA-nominated Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11; and Jane Harris, a close supporter of the Memory Box project.

Grief in Covid times - Ella Rhodes talks to those working in the field, we hear personal reflections from Angel Chater, and Angelina Archer considers grieving at a social distance.

How continuing traditions can help us deal with loss
Erica Crompton in conversation with Anjali Singh-Mitter, on coping with bereavement.
See also the role of rituals, even for non-believers and What can bereavement cards tell us about cultural differences in the expression of sympathy? 

Painfully precious moments – Petra Boynton on dealing with pregnancy loss

The anatomy of online grief
An exclusive chapter from 'All the Ghosts in the Machine: Illusions of Immortality in the Digital Age', by Elaine Kasket
See also ‘death and grief in the digital age’ 

‘It’s not an easy conversation to have with a kid who thinks they’re invincible’
Dr Carla Sofka is a Professor of Social Work at Siena College, Loudonville, New York, with an interest in the role of digital and social media in supporting bereaved students.

Good grief
What is the difference between healthy grief work and unhealthy rumination? Margaret Stroebe and Henk Schut investigate.

Richard Gross wrote ‘The Psychology of Grief’

Personal reflections on coping and loss
Professor Adrian Furnham writes.

Grief and pregnancy loss

5 minutes with Julie Stokes, founder of the child bereavement charity Winston’s Wish
Also see her review of A Monster Calls and this on ‘A Killing in My Family’ 

Dealing with clients’ grief can take its toll on psychologists…see also crying in therapy 

Laura Soulsby and Kate Bennett have explored the impact of spousal bereavement

"up to 60 per cent of cases of bereavement are associated with some kind of hallucinatory experience, of which 32–52 per cent were felt presences"

"during bereavement ‘sights and sounds are commonly misperceived as evidence of (the) return’ of the deceased"

On loss and mourning
Renee Lertzman talks with psychoanalyst and author Darian Leader

Beauty and the beast
An exclusive extract from 'With the End in Mind: Dying, death and wisdom in an age of denial'

Bianca Neumann-May wrote to us, suggesting her work at the Bereavement Café in Bury St Edmunds

A most sensitive and profound portrayal
Barbara and Michael Wilson, who lost their own daughter in a tragic accident, watch 'A Love That Never Dies’.

One to one... with Sheila Payne
Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies, Lancaster University

Eye on Fiction: The Babadook and maternal depression
Pamela Jacobsen considers a metaphor in a horror film, where the main character’s husband dies

A discourse around death

How the misreporting of a student dissertation wrecked bereavement counselling’s reputation

In a recent episode of the Adam Buxton podcast, Derren Brown made the point that the Kubler-Ross ‘stages of grief’ were originally about the person dying, and have become generally assumed to be about those left behind.

What doesn't kill us...
Stephen Joseph discusses the psychology of post-traumatic growth

- Engage with us on Twitter to share your own resources. Visit the Good Grief Trust to find out more about Grief Awareness Week.