1st Edition

Loss of the Assumptive World A Theory of Traumatic Loss

Edited By Jeffrey Kauffman Copyright 2002
    260 Pages 1 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    260 Pages 1 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The assumptive world concept is a psychological principle of the conservation of human reality or "culture" - it is a lens for seeing the psychological disturbances that occur in times of change. In this collection, the authors examine the assumptive world from diverse theoretical perspectives, providing the reader with an array of different viewpoints illuminating the concept and its clinical usefulness.

    Note from the Editor
    Series Editor's Foreword
    Foreword, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman
    Acknowledgment
    Introduction, Jeffrey Kauffman
    Constructing Meaning in a World Broken by the Traumatic Loss of the Assumptive World: Meaning, Self, and Transcendence
    1. Crisis of Meaning in Trauma and Loss, Irene Smith Landsman
    2. The Meaning of Your Absence: Traumatic Loss and Narrative Reconstruction Robert A. Neimeyer, Luis Botella, Olga Herrero, Meritxell Pacheco, Sara Figueras and Luis Alberto Werner-Wildner
    3. How Could God? Loss and the Spiritual Assumptive World, Kenneth Doka
    4. Questionable Assumptions About Assumptive Worlds, Tom Attig
    Relationships With Self and Others
    5. The Harm of Trauma: Pathological Fear, Shattered Assumptions, or Betrayal? Anne P. DePrince and Jennifer J. Freyd
    6. The Assumptive World in the Context of Transference Relationships: A Contribution to Grief Theory, Daniel Liechty
    7. A Self-Psychological Study of Experiences of Near Loss of Life One's Own Life or the Dying or Death of a Close Relative: The Shattered-Fantasy Model of Traumatic Loss, Richard B. Ulman and Maria T. Miliora
    Psychological Processes
    8. Treatment of Violated Assumptive Worlds with EMDR, Roger M. Solomon
    9. Coping with Challenges to Assumpitive Worlds, Charles A. Corr10. Beyond the Beveled Mirror: Mourning and Recovery from Childhood Maltreatment, Sandra L. Bloom
    11. The "Curse" of Too Good a Childhood, Therese A. Rando
    12. The Assumptive World of Children, Linda Goldman
    Traumatic Loss and What Cannot Be Said
    13. Safety and the Assumptive World: A Theory of Traumatic Loss, Jeffrey Kauffman
    14. What Cannot Be Remembered or Forgotten, Henry Krystal
    15. Parting Words: Trauma, Silence and Survival, Cathy Caruth
    Postscript by Colin Murray Parkes
    Index

    Biography

    Jeffrey Kauffman is a psychotherapist in private practice in Philadelphia and an instructor at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. He specializes in the treatment of grief and trauma.

    "The chapters in this collection build on theories of the psychology of trauma and psychosocial chnage to discuss psychological disturbance that occurs after a traumatic loss."
    "The assumptive world is our guide as we organize ourselves and our understanding of the world around us. Trauma attacks those assumptions. This book will help us bridge trauma by using the assumptive world even when it is under attack by the trauma that attacks us." -- The World Pastoral Care Center, Resources Hotline, September 2002
    "A perfect text for an anxious time...an excellent addition to the literature on trauma. It will be helpful in understanding our clients as well as our responses to world events." -- Clinical Social Work Journal
    "The richness of this book for the reader is in seeing the same concept from a number of points of view." -- Bereavement Care