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Grief and loss across the lifespan: a biopsychosocial perspective

This thorough, sensitive and useful book teaches about bereavement, grief-experience and mourning. It offers age-appropriate interventions by exploring normal development issues, abilities and challenges across the lifespan. It considers both the coping strategies of loss at each age, from toddlerhood to old age, as well as how each age group may experience being faced by death themselves. The book reviews a wide range of grief theories, such a task-based and stage-based theories, as well as post-modern grief theories, such as meaning-making, continuing bonds, disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss. For each of the life stages (infancy, school age children, teens, young adults, middle-age adults, retirees and old adults), the biological aspects, the psychological aspects and the social aspects are considered in the context of loss and grief behaviour. The book uses case-studies to clarify the discussed theories. Furthermore, it offers significant insight on disenfranchised losses, opening up the subject of ‘not validated’ losses, such as the loss of an extra-marital relationship, the loss of an early pregnancy, the loss of a same sex partner, the loss of a non-married opposite sex partner, the loss of a person of very old age. Whether the reason for the disenfranchised loss is stigmatisation, shame or commonality, it is still a loss that needs to be acknowledged, in order for it to be worked through. Resilience, stagnation, mental health problems, the search for inner-balance, spiritual growth, coping with reduced financial resources, discrimination, warexperiences to name but a few. All of these subjects are covered by this extensive book. Indeed, from a certain perspective, life is simply a series of (disenfranchised) losses: The departure from the safe uterine environment is the first loss we all encounter, being thrust, without control, into a stark and noisy environment. At toddlerhood, children learn about the conditional element of parental care, which can be experienced as threatening. Moving to a school-environment at the age of 5 years, ensures that judgement is experienced, often for the first time in life. Young adults who make the transition from dependence on family to standing on their own two legs, can feel in awe of the responsibility that rests on their shoulders, causing them to feel stress and anxiety. Emotions of loss associated with leaving behind childhood are often shrugged of by significant others, or even poked fun at, as a rite into adulthood. Further on, thebirth of a baby is considered a most fortunate event by both family and society, yet a new child draws lots of energy away from the couple, who are often exhausted on their not so pink cloud. Marital stresses may result. In middle adulthood adjustments are made to moving to a smaller dwelling, since the children have left home. This often concurs with falling levels of income and falling levels of societal status. Familiar surroundings are swapped for practicality, well suited for the next life stage: Old age. Yet, prior to old age, many midlife adults experience an identity crisis as they come to terms and mourn the loss of the dream once held during early adulthood and what one had hoped to have achieved. People are often unprepared for this experience of mourning. In 336 pages, the authors bear witness to the tale of The 7 Ages of Man regarding loss. In conclusion, Grief and Loss across the Lifespan is a most useful tool, which is highly recommended for experienced grief professionals and students alike.