Disenfranchised Grief Revisited: Discounting Hope and Love
- 1 November 2004
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
- Vol. 49 (3) , 197-215
- https://doi.org/10.2190/p4tt-j3bf-kfdr-5jb1
Abstract
Kenneth Doka's two anthologies on disenfranchised grief (Doka, 1989, 2002) are filled with discussions of the effects of disenfranchisement and its scope. The present article furthers reflection on both topics. It first explores the nature of disenfranchisement as a denial of a mourner's “right to grieve” and analyzes the empathic, political, and ethical failures involved in this denial. It then notes that the literature on the subject is dominated by treatments of the disenfranchisement of suffering. And it urges that the scope of disenfranchisement extends to efforts to overcome suffering, the constructive labors of hope and love at the heart of grieving response to bereavement.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Relearning the world: Making and finding meanings.Published by American Psychological Association (APA) ,2001
- Meaning reconstruction & the experience of loss.Published by American Psychological Association (APA) ,2001
- How We GrieveRelearning the WorldPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,1996
- The importance of conceiving of grief as an active processDeath Studies, 1991
- “Seeking” and “finding” a lost object: Evidence from recent studies of the reaction to bereavementSocial Science & Medicine (1967), 1970
- Is Grief a Disease?Psychosomatic Medicine, 1961
- SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE GRIEFAmerican Journal of Psychiatry, 1944