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Book Reviews: Grief and the Healing Arts: Creativity as Therapy, She Came to Live Out Loud: An Inspiring Family Journey Through Illness, Loss, and Grief

This book is written for the caregiver. Its aim is to show how art is an effective tool for both the caregiver and the care receiver. In her opening statement, Sandra Bertman says, “What an amazing life’s work we therapists have chosen. To accompany fellow human beings to the depths of their suffering, for as long as it takes, until they find their own way back to an inner balance, a sense of oneness with themselves.” The process of supporting people through their grief takes a toll on the mental and emotional well being of the caregiver. The editor contends that by allowing the artist within each one of us to emerge, we are better able to maintain our own well being in that “amazing life’s work” and be more creative as therapists. This book of readings is a kaleidoscope of ideas and images, and has been assembled with a sensitivity and energy that sets a tone which is sustained from beginning to end. It consists of four parts, but within each part, the readings shift artfully back and forth between the personal and the professional, balancing emotion filled stories and poems with more scholarly offerings, illustrating and educating us about the connections between art and healing. At synthesizing, Sandra Bertman is a master and this is her remarkable contribution to the field of death, dying and bereavement. Short of seeing one of her stunning and visually dramatic presentations in person, this book is the next best way to convey her personal ability to educate and inspire, using art as a primary vehichle. The first section focuses primarily upon the caregiver. It opens with Bill Lamers describing his own entry into the field of death and loss following a traumatic personal incident involving the death of two close friends, who arrived by ambulance at the emergency room while he was on duty. This launches his lucid and scholarly description of the psychology of loss, laying out with descriptive examples the processes of working though grief, guilt, detachment and recovery. This section establishes the central theme of the book, that of the “chemistry of partnership between the care giver and the care receiver”. That chemistry is the true heart of this book. After reading the raw poetry of the Night Nurse, the following OMEGA, Vol. 41(2) 151–155, 2000