1st Edition

The Nature of Grief The Evolution and Psychology of Reactions to Loss

By John Archer Copyright 1999

    The Nature of Grief is a provocative new study on the evolution of grief. Most literature on the topic regards grief either as a psychiatric disorder or illness to be cured. In contrast to this, John Archer shows that grief is a natural reaction to losses of many sorts, even to the death of a pet, and he proves this by bringing together material from evolutionary psychology, ethology and experimental psychology.
    This innovative new work will be required reading for developmental and clinical psychologists and all those in the caring professions.

    List of illustrations, Preface, Acknowledgements, 1 Introduction: what is grief?, 2 The historical background to grief research, 3 Accounts of grief from other sources, 4 The biological context of grief, 5 The grief process: an analytic approach, 6 The grief process: holistic views, 7 The resolution of grief, 8 The mental processes of grief, 9 An evolutionary view of individual differences in grief, 10 The relationship with the deceased, 11 Loss of a son or daughter, 12 Death of a relative or friend, 13 The influence of the age and sex of the bereaved, 14 Conclusions, References, Author index, Subject index

    Biography

    John Archer

    'I received my copy of The Nature of Grief in the mail earlier today, and I have not been able to put it down. Although I have not completed it, I wanted to compliment you on an absolutely extraordinary work. It is MUST reading for any stress and coping or bereavement researcher, and will learn a lot from reading it. Thank you for your superb contribution to our field.' - Roxane Silver, University of California, Irvine

    'A number of psychologists have written about bereavement in recent years, but this is the first to adopt an evolutionary perspective. I am delighted to discover that this point of view can be developed in an original and intelligent way.' - Colin Murray Parkes