Overview

"If we wish to understand loss experiences we must learn details of survivors' stories. The new version of How We Grieve: Relearning the World tells in-depth tales of survival to illustrate the poignant disruption of life and suffering that loss entails. It shows how through grieving we overcome challenges, make choices, and reshape our lives. These intimate treatments of coping with loss address the needs of grieving people and those who hope to support and comfort them. The accounts promote understanding of grieving itself, encourage respect for individuality and the uniqueness of loss experiences, show how to deal with helplessness in the face of ""choiceless"" events, and offer guidance for caregivers.The stories make it clear that grieving is not about living passively through stages or phases. We are not so alike when we grieve; our experiences are complex and richly textured. Nor is grieving about coming down with ""grief symptoms"". No one can treat us to make things better. No one can grieve for us.Grieving is instead an active process of coping and relearning how to be and how to act in a world where loss transforms our lives. Loss forces us to relearn things and places; relationships with others, including fellow survivors, the deceased, even God; and our selves, our daily life patterns, and the meanings of our life stories. This revision adds an introductory essay about developments in the author's thinking about grieving as ""relearning the world."" It highlights and clarifies its most distinctive and still salient themes. It elaborates on how his thinking about these themes has expanded and deepened since the first edition. And it places his treatment of those themes in the broader context of current writings on grief and loss."

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas Attig (Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, Bowling Green State University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Edition:   2nd Revised edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.372kg
ISBN:  

9780195397697

ISBN 10:   019539769
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   03 February 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction to the Second Edition Chapter 1 - Stories of Grieving: Listening and Responding *Martin and Louise *Jennifer Bill, Diane and Margaret Ed, Elise, and David Kathryn Colleen Stories Are the Heart of the Matter: The Point of Thinking about Grieving Why Do Persons Look to Books on Grieving? They Seek General Understanding They Seek Respect for Individuality They Seek Ways to Deal with Helplessness in Grieving They Seek Guidance for Caregivers Chapter 2 - Grieving Is Active: We Need Not Be Helpless *The Story of Martin and Louise *Jennifer's Story Bereavement Is Choiceless, but Grieving Is Not Grief Is an Emotion, Grieving a Coping Process Some Say We Grieve in Stages or Phases Some Describe Our Grieving in Medical Terms Is It Helpful to Talk of Stages, Phases and Medical Analogies? Some Say that as We Grieve We Address Tasks A Task-Based, Active View Some Choices We All Have as We Grieve Grieving Is Active: A Summary Chapter 3 - Respecting Individuals When They Grieve *The Story of Bill and Diane *Respecting Individual Flourishing Respecting Individual Vulnerabilities Acting Respectfully Once We Understand Individual Flourishing and Vulnerability What Our Self-Respect Requires Chapter 4 - Relearning the World: How We Grieve *The Story of Ed and Elise *How We Relearn Our Worlds The Worlds We Relearn We Relearn Our Physical Surroundings We Relearn Our Relationships with Fellow Survivors We Relearn Our Selves We Relearn Our Places in Space and Time The Power of the Relearning Idea Chapter 5 - Relearning Our Selves: Grief and Personal Integrity *David's Story *Margaret's Story How Are We to Understand Ourselves in Loss and Grief? An Image of How We Become the Selves We Are Our Selves in Loss and Grief: Elaborating the Image As We Cope, We Engage with and Move beyond Suffering We Struggle to Put Our Shattered Lives Back Together We Seek New Ways to Complete Our Life Stories We Become Whole Again as Parts of Larger Wholes Together We Reshape Our Families and Communities Advantages of This Idea of Relearning Our Selves Chapter 6 - Relearning Our Relationships with the Deceased: Grief, Love and Separation *Kathryn's Story *Colleen's Story What We Lose, and What We Do Not Lose, When Someone Dies Let Go We Must, but Not Entirely We Continue to Love and Cherish the Stories of Lives Now Ended We Still Care About What Those Who Died Cared About. Advantages of This Idea of Relearning Our Relationships with the Deceased Index

Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this timely revised edition. Whether you are a clinician, academic, researcher, or counsellor, you should find this book both usefuland a joy to read. Bereaved people themselves may also find this book helpful, as they seek to make sense of the chaos that death often brings. * International Journal of Palliative Nursing, * If you have much to do with grief and bereavement, you will find much in this book that is useful and interesting, and I think you will enjoy reading it. * Roger Woodruff * This book provides a powerfully hopeful exposition of relearning the world in grief and the wider reflections of this second edition provide an update to an already well regarded text. * Linda Machin, Cruse Bereavement Care *

<br> If one is looking for a book on grief and grieving based on lived experiences rather than more remote psychosocial theories, then Thomas Attig's How We Grieve is the resource to read. Although it is not a brand new book (first published in 1996), in this reviewer's opinion no book published in the last four years comes close to the power of Attig's contribution to understanding the grief process. Attig, a former philosophy professor and past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, uses the power of story to unlock the mystery of the human experience of life and death, and produces a rich treasure of intensely human stories of coping with loss due to death. This book has substance, theory and organization, and is highly readable--packed with the everyday drama of life and death. It is an immensely useful and provocative, sensitive and human, inspiring and engaging book. --America<p><br> In this richly rewarding book, Attig, a philosopher who has written and

If you have much to do with grief and bereavement, you will find much in this book that is useful and interesting, and I think you will enjoy reading it. Roger Woodruff

Author Information

Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling; currently an independent applied philosopher, writer, and speaker

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