When People Grieve Research Paper

This reflection paper will attempt to explore the grief and loss of my father as it relates to Stroebe and Schut’s Dual Process Model of Bereavement and Neimeyer’s Meaning Construction Model (cited in S. Lister, 2008).

Whether it is over the death of a loved one or a very emotional situation, grief is inevitable. Most individuals experience a form of grief at some point in their lifetime. Coping with a distressing situation can be a very difficult task and there are many arguments as to whether there is a set and correct method on how to deal with grief or not. Many people have created a grieving process that includes going through certain stages in order. However, this proposed grieving method is no more than a false theory. Due to the fact that every single person grieves differently, there is no way to possibly set a specific way to grieve. “A Raisin in The Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry and “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” by William Shakespeare both

The work of grieving is an alternation between remembering and hoping. Remembering liberates the past by admitting the finality of death and hoping creates room for the future. People need hope to do the painful work of remembering. Finding hope is seldom a solitary experience. Sometimes we borrow that hope from a friend or a pastoral person whose empathic words confirm our grief and validate our grieving. In this way, hoping is an experience of mutuality. It is the experience of mutuality that transforms our dread of abandonment and our terrors of isolation into sustaining communities of hoping. Those who grieve the loss of someone they love are often isolated in their grief by our unwillingness to go with them to those places where

A closer look at the mourning process will reveal that such a process contains several steps necessary to complete in order to continue on with a life after a beloved has passed. The tasks of mourning by William Worden are examined for insight on the grieving process and what difficulties might be encountered. The grieving process is complex and requires acknowledgement of its importance for bereaving individuals to successfully heal from his/her loss.

In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful Edmund Burke writes, “It is the nature of grief to keep its object perpetually in its eye, to present it in its most pleasurable views, to repeat all the circumstances that attend to it”. Burke’s writing attempts to clarify the “pictorial, literary, cultural, economic and psychological” phenomenon of sublimity, explicating the ways in which power, vastness, obscurity and beauty intersect to form emotional response. A Philosophical Enquiry elucidates why so many Romantic poets and writers would make grief, mourning and death the subjects of their works; the limitless, obscure, infinite theme death corresponds to the existential, contemplative and introspective ideas Romantic writers were attempting to interrogate. But the subject of death in Romantic literature transcends the topic of corporeal death and explores the death of memory, of youth, of innocence and of the past. Furthermore, the Romantic writers were grappling with a shifting, changing society that caused a sense of pervasive loss in their works; as artists, authors and the population attempted to navigate a society characterized by political revolution and technological innovation, poems about mourning act as almost consolatory works.

There are many things I have come to know in the last 10 months of my life. In late January of 2017, I experienced great personal loss of a loved one. Consequently, I did not expect this loss to lead me through the five stages of grief. I can say now, I believe I am in the stage of acceptance and with acceptance, comes the acknowledgement I did not handle each stage adequately and appropriately. Reflecting upon this experience, somewhere along the way of dealing with grief, I lost my footing and perspective. I am sorry for the pain I caused my family and friends, the shame I brought upon myself, and for my behavior, which did not reflect positively on the Des Monies University community.

The process of dealing with grief after a loved one has passed away is proven to be complicated and chaotic. Loss creates a shattering of the regular routine and dissolves any meaning of regular life that was once held. Psychologists have released a commonality chart in order to aid people in grieving; providing a linear process to work through. People utilize these guidelines in hopes that the pain caused by the loss of the departed will end quickly. This convention of mourning typically includes five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. Mourners tend to look for a way to articulate and release their grief: some do this through extreme measures, and others look towards art, music, or writing for a release. John Clayton argues that this act of expression is a gesture of healing- although it may not fall under the stereotypical five stage: “any expressive art is as an attempt to end discords in its creator- to express that experiences and so gain control of it” (Clayton, 4). Donald Hall, in his book Without, articulates his grief over his late wife through writing poems. Within these poems, Hall engages with the process of mourning. Although he does not participate in all five of the conventional stages of grief, it is evident that Hall engages with denial and isolation, depression, and anger. Without expresses how Hall choses to confront the grief and the

Human life narrative is incomplete without talking about grief. Man goes through moments of mourning and grief when faced with terminal illnesses, death of a close relative or friend or animal. We respond differently when faced by challenging situations, some will outwardly, in tears when thoughts of the experience runs in their mind while others will hurt from the inside. Our role is not to judge how a person griefs (Axelrod, 2014, p. 1) but rather to offer support in these moments.

Adolescents grieving is similar to a child than an adult. Adolescents range from the ages of ten to twenty-two years old. Throughout their grieving process adolescent have a range of many emotions and inner conflicts which are greatly influenced by their biologically changes in their bodies. During times of grief, adolescents also face inner conflicts of life, death, loneliness, frustration, depression and so forth. These questions of life and death gives opportunities to many adolescents to explore their spirituality or religion. Adolescents also have an egocentric altitude, which makes them believe that their situation is different then everyone else’s. Even though the youth can be dealing with inner conflicts, many youth would not express their emotions with others. Even though adolescents may not express their feeling their actions, low grades, violence, sexual behavior is an alert sign to parents that there something wrong. Teenagers would also think that their “immoral” and would do risky activities just to test their lives.

Greetings to all, Artistic Director of Artslink Queensland and significant others. Thank you for taking time and giving me the opportunity to let me present to you my dramatic treatment to the 7 Stages of Grieving. This presentation will display my chosen scene and other significant ideas to this opportunity and I will present this with the justification of my dramatic decisions.

An article written in The Telegraph in 2014 described how half of Britons in relationships do not know their partner’s end of life wishes (ref), talking about death seems to be a taboo subject. Yet all people will grieve and mourn and show some if not all stages of emotions when losing a loved one; Kubler-Ross describes the stages as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance (ref).

One ineffective practice of grieving is avoidance. Once told that a loved one is dying, numerous people have started a new trend of avoiding their dying loved one altogether. This is an extremely vain method of grieving. On one hand, this allows the person to remember who their loved one was and not remember them as the fragile form before them. Nevertheless, the person never gets to say goodbye and is left with feeling of regret and

I would say there were a few class discussions that I personally connected to, but it is easier to write about it than talk about it in class for me. Our in-class writing 12 I specifically connected with number one which states “Our suffering is not unique but is shared by millions and trillions of other beings, animal as well as human. We find out that we have cancer, and we breathe in the fear, the disbelief, the pain of all cancer patients and send relief to all. We lose someone dear to us, and it connects to everyone who is overcome with grief. We lie awake with insomnia, and it links us to countless others who are lying awake. On the spot, we breathe in our sleeplessness and the sleeplessness of others, breathe in our anxiety, our agitation, and the same discomfort felt by others. On the spot, we send out restfulness, peace of mind, contentment” (p. 81). I feel I struggle with this personally because I am a very closed person and do not like to share my suffering or grief. I have to face though it isn’t my decision because I cannot stop people from suffering the same events that I suffer in my life, it is all out of our hands and allows us to form much deeper connections without knowing. I believe I most struggle with my grief in the loss of my father, which I know I am not the only one to lose my father in the world, but it is hard for me to think that as I write this paper right now another little girl could be losing her dad. Not only do you share suffering with complete strangers, but you share it with your closest friends and family the most without thinking about it. In the book it states, “The word tonglen is Tibetan for “sending and receiving”.” This makes me think of the willingness to share/send our grief and the willingness of others to take/receive it and help us through it or vice versa for us to take someone’s grief/suffering and help them through it even if you may be suffering as well. If we do not try to face our suffering on our own, I believe it could help lessen it and possible help you to overcome it by allowing others to help you, but nevertheless if you overcome this obstacle there will always be another one to face in the future.

Dealing with loss affects an individual physically and emotionally. Loss can take a huge toll on anybody. When we talk about loss we are not just talking about the death of a person, but loss of a job or a divorce. People cope with loss in various ways. There are more than just physical and emotional affects that loss can have on a person but these are the main affects that we hear the most about.

How does one get through hard times? How can one possibly get over death and despair? Poet and journalist Walt Whitman aimed to transcend traditional epics, and reflect the nature of the American Experience and it’s democracy . Whitman was considered one of America’s most influential poets. The poet wrote his poem, “O Captain! My Captain!” in 1855 after the death of the president at the time, Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War. The short article “The 5 stages of Grief and Loss” by Julie Axelrod was written in May 2016. Even though there is not much describing Axelrod in her about section, one can decipher that she works on the mourning and loss of another and helps to move past. She shows these feelings through all of her articles written for the website, Psych Central. “Oh Captain, My Captain!” by Walt Whitman and Julie Axelrod’s article “The 5 stages of Grief and Loss” both show denial, isolation, and anger. Together, they reflect the theme of grief.