Perspectives On Loss

Losses are integral to the human experience, but they sometimes unfold in subtle ways. Loss is not just about death, but can encompass a number of situations, such as those gradual losses experienced by the elderly: loss of vision, mental capacity, or hope. Intended to stimulate ideas and research in the new area of psychological aspects of loss, this sourcebook collects the writing of a set of distinguished scholars representing psychology and related fields. The author presents a case for a broadly-construed field of loss-both personal and interpersonal-that would complement other fields such as death and dying, traumatology, and stress and coping. No other volume is as comprehensive in its treatment of this intriguing subject. The book begins with an introduction to the concept of loss and discusses the definition of the term and the salience of the topic in the general public in the 1990s. Contributors were chosen to represent some of the most interesting current work on different types of loss and adaptation in the whole of the social and behavioral sciences. Contents cover such diverse subjects as loss in intimate relationships, disability, chronic illness, genocide, sports, unemployment, and homelessness. The book concludes with a commentary section on loss theory and research.

John H. Harvey

I: Theoretical Perspectives; 1: New Directions in Loss Research; 2: Blockades to Finding Meaning and Control; 3: Disillusionment and the Creation of Value: From Traumatic Losses to Existential Gains; 4: Exploring Loss through Autoethnographic Inquiry: Autoethnographic Stories, Co-Constructed Narratives, and Interactive Interviews; 5: A Case for Hope in Pain, Loss, and Suffering; 6: Trauma and Grief: A Comparative Analysis; II: Losses within Close Relationships; 7: The Dissolution of Close Relationships; 8: Fatal Attractions: Contradictions in Intimate Relationships; 9: Loss in the Experience of Multiracial Couples; 10: Curbing Loss in Illness and Disability: A Relationship Perspective; 11: Passion Lost and Found; III: Losses Faced by Survivors and Caretakers; 12: Implications of Communal Relationships Theory for Understanding Loss among Family Caregivers; 13: Brain Injury: A Tapestry of Loss; 14: Loss Experienced in Chronic Pain and Illness; 15: When a Loss is Due to Suicide: Unique Aspects of Bereavement; 16: Mental Health Professionals' Responses to Loss and Trauma of Holocaust Survivors; 17: Breaking the Cycle of Genocidal Violence: Healing and Reconciliation; IV: Losses Related to Social Identity; 18: The Experience of Loss in Sport; 19: What is Lost by Not Losing: Losses Related to Body Weight; 20: Homelessness and Loss: Conceptual and Research Considerations; 21: Coping with Threat from Intimate Sources: How Self-Protection Relates to Loss for Women; 22: Loss of Collective Identity: Self-Sacrifice, Beauty Contests, and Magical Practices; 23: Job Loss: Hard Times and Eroded Identity; V: Synthesizing Commentaries on Loss Theory and Research; 24: Why There Must Be a Psychology of Loss; 25: Can There Be a Psychology of Loss?; 26: Issues in the Study of Loss and Grief