A loss in the family: Silence, memory, and narrative identity after bereavement

Something Lost, Something Gained: Experiences of Psychological Therapists Bereaved of a Parent in Childhood

Situated in the context of existing literature on wounded healers and the use of self in therapy, the aim of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of psychological therapists who experienced the death of a parent in childhood. Seven psychological therapists from a range of professions and therapeutic modalities participated in semi-structured interviews exploring how this experience impacted them personally and professionally, in their therapeutic work. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three master themes emerged: 'A loss beyond words'; 'Navigating in a strange landscape'; and 'Something lost, something gained'. Areas of convergence and divergence between these findings and previous theory and research are discussed, particularly with respect to literature on grieving and the self of the therapist. Implications for therapeutic practice, supervision and training are highlighted, including the importance of self-reflection and supervision in facilitating the use of self, and the value of therapeutic training incorporating self-of-the-therapist work.

Identity disruption and its association with mental health among veterans with reintegration difficulty

Most research and theory on identity integration focuses on adolescents and young adults under age 30, and relatively little is known about how identity adjusts to major life events later in life. The purpose of the present study was to operationalize and investigate identity disruption, or a loss of temporal identity integration following a disruptive life event, within the developmental context of established adulthood and midlife. We used a mixed-methods approach to examine identity disruption among 244 Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with reintegration difficulty who participated in an expressive writing intervention. Participants completed measures of social support, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, satisfaction with life, and reintegration difficulty at baseline right before writing, and 3 and 6 months after the expressive writing intervention. The expressive writing samples were coded for identity disruption using thematic analysis. We hypothesized that identity disruption would be associated with lower social support, more severe PTSD symptoms, lower satisfaction with life, and greater reintegration difficulty at baseline. Forty-nine percent (n = 121) of the sample indicated identity disruption in their writing samples. Identity disruption was associated with more severe PTSD symptoms, lower satisfaction with life, and greater reintegration difficulty at baseline, and with less improvement in social support. The findings suggest that identity disruption is a meaningful construct for extending the study of identity development to established adult and midlife populations, and for understanding veterans' adjustment to civilian life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Disclosure of Grief Questionnaire (DGQ): Entwicklung und Validierung eines Fragebogens zur Erfassung von Kommunikationsmustern nach Trauerfällen

Zusammenfassung. Für die Verarbeitung belastender Ereignisse ist das Offenlegen der persönlichen Erfahrungen gegenüber dem sozialen Umfeld von zentraler Bedeutung. Allerdings gibt es bislang keine geeigneten Instrumente zur Erfassung der Kommunikationsmuster nach Trauerfällen. Ziel der aktuellen Studie war daher, den Fragebogen zum Offenlegen von traumatischen Erfahrungen (FOT; Müller, Beauducel, Raschka & Maercker, 2000 ) für Trauerprozesse zu adaptieren und seine psychometrische Qualität über eine Online-Befragung von 302 Personen, die mindestens einen Trauerfall erlebt hatten, zu überprüfen. In einer Hauptkomponentenanalyse ergab sich eine 2-Faktoren-Lösung mit den beiden Faktoren „Verschwiegenheit“ und „Mitteilungsbedürfnis“. Die psychometrischen Kennwerte der Skalen sind mit Cronbachs α-Werten zwischen .82 – .88 als zufriedenstellend bis gut einzuordnen. Ebenso kann die Konstruktvalidität vor dem Hintergrund signifikanter Korrelationen mit verwandten Maßen als gegeben angesehen werden. Der „Disclosure of Grief Questionnaire“ (DGQ) ist somit ein reliables und valides Instrument zur Erfassung der individuellen Kommunikationsmuster nach einem Trauerfall.

Parents' traces in life: When and how parents are presented in spontaneous life narratives

OBJECTIVE

Although parents are acknowledged to be a part of their children's personality and narrative identity and to remain important across the life span, narrative personality research has not yet explored the spontaneous presentation of parents in life stories. Therefore, this study examined longitudinally the place given to parents when crafting one's life narrative and how this changes with age. Furthermore, in contrast to prior studies, we focused on spontaneous mentions of parents.

METHOD

We investigated how often parents are mentioned in life narratives of six age groups spanning from age 8 to 69, how the parental relationship is evaluated, whether narrators express understanding of their parents, and whether they respond to parental values.

RESULTS

People of all ages dedicated a substantial part of their life narratives to their parents and evaluated their relationship with them in an increasingly differentiated manner. Parents were increasingly perceived as individuals beyond their parental nurturing role. Until late in life, individuals reflect on values and opinions that were transferred to them by their parents.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents hold a consistent place in life narratives, emphasizing their importance for narrative identity. Results are discussed in terms of lifelong child-parent relationships. Directions for future research are outlined.

Variation in narrative identity is associated with trajectories of mental health over several years

This article presents 2 longitudinal studies designed to assess the relationship between variability in narrative identity and trajectories of mental health over several years. In Study 1, core scenes from 89 late-mid-life adults' life stories were assessed for several narrative themes. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed concurrently with the narratives and annually for the subsequent 4 years. Concurrent analyses indicated that the themes of agency, redemption, and contamination were significantly associated with mental health. Longitudinal analyses indicated that these same 3 themes were significantly associated with participants' trajectories of mental health over the course of 4 years. Exploratory analyses indicated that narratives of challenging experiences may be central to this pattern of results. In Study 2, similar longitudinal analyses were conducted on a sample of 27 late-mid-life adults who received a major physical illness diagnosis between the baseline assessment and 6 months later and a matched sample of 27 control participants who remained healthy throughout the study. Participants' mental health and physical health were assessed every 6 months for 2 years. In this study, the themes of agency, communion, redemption, and contamination in participants' life narratives collected at baseline (before any participant became sick) were significantly associated with mental health in the group of participants who went on to receive a medical diagnosis, but not in the control group. Taken together, the results of these 2 studies indicate that the way an individual constructs personal narratives may impact his or her trajectory of mental health over time.

Empathy and silence in pastoral care for traumatic grief and loss

This paper evaluates silence as a therapeutic practice in pastoral care for traumatic grief and loss. Informed by the history of attachment and mourning theory, its research considers the basic effect that empathy has upon the therapeutic relationship around psychic difference. The study appraises the potential resources and detriments that empathic language may have for the grief process. Offering clinical examples in hospice chaplaincy, it refutes the idea that silence is formulaic tool to be used. It instead offers silence as the acceptance of the limits of empathic language and the affirmation of psychological difference and theological wholeness.

Languages of Grief: a model for understanding the expressions of the bereaved

The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the key features of the expressions of grief. Grief is a response to loss or anticipated loss. Although universal, its oral and nonverbal expression varies across cultures and individuals. Loss is produced by an event perceived to be negative to varying degrees by the individuals involved and has the potential to trigger long-term changes in a person's cognitions and relationships. The languages used by the bereaved to express grief differ from the language used by professionals, creating dissonance between the two. Data were obtained from English language Medline and CINAHL databases, from professional and personal experiences, interviews with experts, and exploration of cemetery memorials. Blog websites and social networks provided additional materials for further refinement of the model. Content analysis of the materials and agreement by the authors as to the themes resulted in the development of the model. To bridge the gap between professional language and that used by the bereaved, a Languages of Grief model was developed consisting of four Modes of Expression, four Types of Language, plus three Contingent Factors. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for comprehending the grief of the individual, contributing to clinical understanding, and fruitful exploration by professionals in better understanding the use of languages by the bereaved. Attention to the Modes of Expression, Types of Language, and Contingent Factors provides the professional with a richer understanding of the grieving individual, a step in providing appropriate support to the bereaved. The Languages of Grief provides a framework for application to discrete occurrences with the goal of understanding grief from the perspective of the bereaved.

Selective disclosure in a first conversation about a family death in James Agee's novel A Death in the Family

The first conversation of a family about a family death is a neglected but potentially important topic. In a first conversation in James Agee's (1957/ 2006) novel A Death in the Family, the member who knows the most about the accidental death of another member discloses information selectively. The first conversation in Agee's novel suggests that communication and caring in the first family conversation about a death is attuned to family member emotions, particularly those of the family member considered most vulnerable, and that the aim is not a shared narrative that is true, but one that people can live with.