1st Edition
Cultural, Existential and Phenomenological Dimensions of Grief Experience
This innovative volume examines the phenomenological, existential and cultural dimensions of grief experiences. It draws on perspectives from philosophy, psychology and sociocultural studies to focus on the experiential dimension of grief, moving beyond understanding from a purely mental health and psychiatry perspective.
The book considers individual, shared and collective experiences of loss. Chapters explore the intersections between the profound existential experiences of bereavement and how this is mediated by sociocultural norms and practices. It points to new directions for the future conceptualization and study of grief, particularly in the experiential dimension.
Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, this important book will appeal to academics, researchers and students in the fields of death and bereavement studies, wellbeing and mental health, philosophy and phenomenological studies.
Acknowledgments
List of figures
List of tables
Contributors bios
Introduction
Ester Holte Kofod & Allan Køster
Part 1: Phenomenologies of grief
Part 1 introduction: Phenomenology and its application to grief and bereavement
Allan Køster
Chapter 1: Grief, Melancholy, and Depression: An existential phenomenology of reactions to transience
Thomas Fuchs
Chapter 2: What is longing? An existential-phenomenological investigation
Allan Køster
Chapter 3: Grief, Commitment and the Sense of Community
Line Ryberg Ingerslev
Chapter 4: Distorted Space, Unmoving Time – Aesthetic Practices in Bereavement
Kathleen Higgins
Chapter 5: Grief and the Photograph: A Phenomenology of Captured Time and Its Resonances with Death
Kirsten Jacobson
Chapter 6: The Interpersonal and Social Dimensions of Emotion Regulation in Grief
Matthew Ratcliffe
& Eleanor A. Byrne.
Part 2: Normativities: Frictions and mediations
Part 2 introduction: The normative mediation of experiences of loss
Ester Holte Kofod
Chapter 7: Continuing Bonds in the Cultural, Existential, and Phenomenological Study of Grief
Dennis Klass
Chapter 8: Poetic representations of parental grief
Ester Holte Kofod
Chapter 9: Grieving as Relearning the World is Inherently Social
Thomas Attig
Chapter 10: Grief Dynamics and Gendered Expectations on Expressions of Grief
Leeat Granek
Chapter 11: The oughtness of grief: Ontological, cultural and existential perspectives
Alfred Bordado Sköld & Svend Brinkmann
Chapter 12: From ineffability and cultural taboo to meaning: Making sense of sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of deceased loved ones
Edith Maria Steffen
Biography
Allan Køster is Senior Researcher at the National Center for Grief, Denmark, and Research Fellow at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
Ester Holte Kofod is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Psychology at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.
