Death is a universal human experience, as natural to our lives as birth, sleep, and hunger. Everyone dies at the end of their lives, and unless their own death is premature, everyone loses someone they love to death. A number of psychological states can be elicited by the death of a loved one, including sadness, anger, confusion, and fear (Field, Gao, Paderna, 2005; Leming & Dickinson, 2011). The process of working through these emotions, and the rituals and practices surrounding death, burial, and mourning, although strongly influenced by culture, age, life experience, religious beliefs, and attachment style, are unique to each individual (Brubaker, Hayes, & Dourish, 2013; Leming & Dickinson, 2011; Stroebe, Schut, & Boerner, 2010). The Internet in general, and social network sites (SNSs) in particular, are both products and drivers of culture and therefore can have a profound effect on the grieving process of their users (Brubaker, Hayes, & Dourish, 2013). Two phenomena are of particular interest regarding this exchange: intersubjectivity in the development of online personalities and the practice of displaying for public attention the private feelings of the dying and bereaved (Brubaker, Hayes, & Dourish, 2013; Brubaker & Vertesi, 2010; Stroebe, Schut, & Boerner, 2010; Field, Gao, & Paderna, 2005). Death represents a total disruption of human attachment bonds. These bonds develop primarily in childhood and center around proximity maintenance (the attachment figure is always near or readily accessible), safe haven (the attachment figure is available for reassurance and safety during times of stress), and secure base (the attachment figure is available for support when seeking novelty and facing the unknown). Parental attachment b... ... middle of paper ... ... Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2011, May 7-12, 2011 Leming, M.R., & Dickinson, G.E. (2011). Understanding Dying, Death, & Bereavement, Seventh Edition, pps. 68-73. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Massimi, M., & Baecker, R.M. (2010). A Death in the Family: Opportunities for Designing Technologies for the Bereaved. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2010, April 10-15, 2010 Statisticbrain.com (2014). Facebook Statistics. Retrieved from www.statisticbrain.com/facebook -statistics/ Stroebe, M., Schut, H., & Boerner, K. (2010). Continuing Bonds in Adaptation to Bereavement: Toward Theoretical Integration. Clinical Psychology Review. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11 .007 Varcarolis, E.M., & Halter, M.J. (2010). Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach, Sixth Edition, pps. 707-721. St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier
“In most human society's death is an extremely important cultural and social phenomenon, sometimes more important than birth” (Ohnuki-Tierney, Angrosino, & Daar et al. 1994). In the United States of America, when a body dies it is cherished, mourned over, and given respect by the ones that knew the person. It is sent to the morgue and from there the family decides how the body should be buried or cremated based on...
...ral differences in patterns of behavior and of social support includes each culture’s sense of what is sane and healthy, as opposed to life- and health-threatening. Thus, what people do protects the bereaved and in some senses everyone around the bereaved form. The cross-cultural emphasis, in fact, is a kind of metaphor. To help effectively, we must overcome our presuppositions and struggle to understand people on their own terms (i.e., not having the intention or the reason why the man placed a rose over Bella J. Bhukhan’s name).
It is common for those experiencing grief to deny the death altogether. Many people do this by avoiding situations and places that remind them of the deceased (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). However, by simply avoiding the topic of death and pain, the mourner only achieves temporary relief while in turn creating more permanent lasting agony (Rich, 2005). In this stage, mourners will begin to feel the full weight of the circumstance. Whether the death of a loved one was sudden or long-term, survivors will feel a full range of emotions, such as sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, hopelessness, or grief. While many of these emotions can cause serious suffering, it is important for the survivor to feel whatever emotions come up and deal with those feelings, rather than trying to suppress any
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, published the Pioneering book On Death and Dying. The work acquainted the world with the grieving process, called the five stages of grief. Kübler-Ross gathered her research from studying individuals with terminal cancer (Johnson, 2007). The first stage of the grieving process is denial. In this stage the person refuses to believe that their loved one is deceased, a common thought during this period is, “This can’t be happening to me” (Johnson, 2007).The second stage of the grieving process is anger. In this level the person becomes frustrated with their circumstances, a customary complaint is “Why is this happening to me?” (Johnson, 2007). The third stage of the grieving process is bargaining. At this point the individual hopes that they can prevent their grief, this typically involves bartering with a higher power, and an ordinary observance during this time is “I will do anything to have them back” (Johnson, 2007). The fourth and most identifiable stage of grief is depression. This phase is habitually the lengthiest as...
Attachments are formed with parents; this contributes to give a sense of who we are and who we will become in later life. However where these attachments are broken the child needs to have a secure attachment established with an alternative adult care giver,...
The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science Tells Us about Life after Loss, written by George A. Bonanno, illustrates the ways in which different people deal with loss in different ways and even so, most of us are resilient to loss. Death is an inevitable phase every person must face. Throughout one’s life, everybody is destined to confront the pain of death in his or her lifetime. But how do we cope? Is there a “correct” or “normal” way, or length of time we are supposed to use, to recover after a major loss? Bonanno delves into the ways in which we deal with grief and loss that are contrary to what people generally presume. We may be surprised, even hurt, by a loss, but we still manage to pull ourselves back together and move on. One of the recurring arguments made in The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science Tells Us about Life after Loss is that resilience after loss is real, prevailing, and enduring. Bonanno is able to provide much compelling evidence to show the different patterns or trajectories of grief reactions across time shown by bereaved people. He also explains thoroughly how grief is not work by elucidating the ways emotions work to help us deal with demanding environments. Bonanno is successful in allowing the readers to be conscious of what people are grieving after a major loss – they don’t grieve facts, they grieve what they remember. In addition, Bonanno explains how death elicits both terror and curiosity to help his readers conceptualize death. Bonanno essentially articulates that resilience is both genuine and lasting because it is in our human capacity to thrive in the face of adversity.
Sylvia Grider. “Public Grief and the Politics of Memorial.” Anthropology Today (London), June 2007, 3-7. Print.
Death is sometimes considered unthinkable. People do not wish to think of loved ones dying. When someone close to us dies we are over come with sadness. We wish we had more time with them. Their death shows us the importance of that person’s role in our lives. We begin to think of how we will live our lives without them. We think of all the moments we shared with them, they live again in our memories. Perhaps death is considered unthinkable because we fe...
Saying Goodbye To Someone You Love : Your Emotional Journey Through End Of Life And Grief. New York: DemosHealth, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 25 Feb. 2014
Harris, Scott Duke. "Online Memorials: Internet Adds New Dimension to Grieving Process." Making Literature Matter. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2012. 67173. Print.
Devito, Joseph A. "Communicating with the Grief Stricken." Devito, Joseph A. The Interpersonal Communication Book. Boston: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon, 2009. 175.
While the end of life experience is universal, the behaviors associated with expressing grief are very much culturally bound. Death and grief being normal life events, all cultures have developed ways to cope with death in a respectful manner, and interfering with these practices can disrupt people’s ability to cope during the grieving
Losing a child is one of the most traumatic events a person can ever experience. This life changing experience is very difficult for parents to cope with. Grief is something we all experience as human beings; we will all lose someone that we love in our lifetime. We all go through the five stages of grief denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and last being acceptance (Bolden, 2007). However, this is arguably not the case for parents who experience the death of a child. Although, parents who have experienced...
Imagine growing up without a father. Imagine a little girl who can’t run to him for protection when things go wrong, no one to comfort her when a boy breaks her heart, or to be there for every monumental occasion in her life. Experiencing the death of a parent will leave a hole in the child’s heart that can never be filled. I lost my father at the young of five, and every moment since then has impacted me deeply. A child has to grasp the few and precious recollections that they have experienced with the parent, and never forget them, because that’s all they will ever have. Families will never be as whole, nor will they forget the anguish that has been inflicted upon them. Therefore, the sudden death of a parent has lasting effects on those
... The middle-aged often become preoccupied with death as age approaches whereas older adults ear lingering, incapacitating illness and realizes the imminence e death. While the individual is suffering the primary loss, the family and/or significant other must deal with not only the individual reactions, but also with the current loss. The family con provide a support system for the way in which the individual may deal with the loss. They mutually share feelings and openly communicate both negative and positive emotions related to death. In contrast the family in some way is responsible for the death and may thus eel guilty. They may express feeling of anger, shame, overprotection, withdrawal, and identify with the loss or they may feel helpless or hopeless. In assessing the family reaction the nurse should identify the prior interaction style of the system”.