Overview

Violent death, whether by homicide, suicide, or accident, is particularly traumatic for the family and surrounding community of the deceased. Unlike natural dying from disease or old age, someone is responsible for a violent death, and the family and community cannot rest until the dying is explained, until the perpetrator is identified and justice and order are re-established. Often, a spectacled story of the death eclipses the memory of the person's life: family members remain mired in the retelling of the death and cannot fully reengage in their own living. In Retelling Violent Death , Edward K. Rynearson presents a strategy for restorative retelling that is based upon his thirty years of clinical practice and research with family members after a violent death as well as his own personal experience after his wife's suicide. In addition to a clear outline of this model for encouraging resilience, the book includes clinical interventions and case studies, as well as coverage of restorative retelling with children and adolescents, extant literature on violent dying, and the design and establishment of support groups and programs for those affected by violent death. Written from a highly engaging and uniquely personal perspective, Retelling Violent Death is an important resource for family members and clinicians who seek to help them in the aftermath of this devastating and life-changing event. It provides hope that there is a way to survive and accommodate a violent death, to begin and continue the self-transformation that makes survival possible.

Full Product Details

9781583913635

Table of Contents

Reviews

A masterful melding of clinical expertise and personal revelation, the book is an eloquent, jargon-free resource for those who seek to help someone who has experienced the violent death of a loved one, whether by suicide, homicide, or an accident, as well as for survivors of traumatic death who seek compassionate, wise counsel for their own journey. Although Rynearson professes that the practice of retelling violent death does not clarity, the book itself is written with a refreshing clarity seldom found in his field. (As the owner of an outsize professional library that makes my husband dread moving day, I possess few volumes more valuable than this one. It has been useful from the first day I opened it.). <br>- Death Studies, May 2003 <br> This is a warm, compassionate, and wise book. The emphasis on resilience and safety, on restorative retelling and human concern and kindness, provides guidance for those who would assist others to find their way through traumatic grief, or who would, themselves, seek to do so. This work will be of great value to all who offer care to others in this tragic life circumstance. <br>-Beverley Raphael, AM, MBBS, MD, FRANZCP, FASSA, FRCPSych, Emeritus Professor, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, Australia <br> This valuable how-to book for clinicians responds to today's world. Retelling Violent Death . . . has much new, important, and useful information to offer, and does so with a level of humanity that is profound and deeply moving. This is a book that deserves a place on every clinician's bookshelf. <br>-Deborah Spungen, MSS, MLSP, CTS, Special Projects Director, Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia <br>... sets out warmlyreadable guidance for the sufferers themselves and for nonprofessionals who want to help suffering friends or family emerge from the bewilderment, heartbreak, and confusion that come with violent death. <br>- Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma <br>

Author Information

Edward K. Rynearson, MD, is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington, and Medical Director of the Homicide Support Project at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. He has thirty years of experience in research and clinical practice in helping grief-stricken family members.

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