1 Day #5 of 8 What is grief? Part 2 Roster: Handouts: Please verify your information and put a checkmark next to your name or add your name. Please pick up a copy of today’s handouts.
Dec 28, 2015
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Day #5 of 8
What is grief?Part 2
Day #5 of 8
What is grief?Part 2
Roster: Handouts:
Please verify yourinformation and put a checkmark
next to your name or add your name.
Please pick up a copy of today’s
handouts.
http://www.canyons.edu/faculty/rafterm
The Psychology of Love & Loss“What is Grief?” Part 2
Day #5 of 8
Loss & Change:The impact on one’s identity
(John Stephenson & Erik Erickson)
The effects of life-change related stress
(Thomas Holmes & Richard Rahe)
• John Stephenson: Phases of GriefPhases of Grief
• Erik Erikson: Identity FormationIdentity Formation
Readjustment Due toLoss of & Change in a
relationship:The Impact on One’s Identity
• Reaction
• Disorganization & Reorganization
• Reorientation & Recovery
John Stephenson’sPhases of GriefPhases of Grief
• Shock• Numbness• Bewilderment
in particular to the newsin general to the universe
• Crying• Strong and quick mood
shifts
REACTIONREACTION
• Despair
• Unfocused thoughts
• Former patterns of behaviorexamined, abandoned, changed
• Loss of a sense of self, loss of one’s identity, loss of one’s mind
DISORGANIZATION DISORGANIZATION & &
REORGANIZATIONREORGANIZATION
• Activities are reorganized• A change in the relationship
with the deceased• New avenues for creative living• A new identity independent of
the relationship once had with the deceased
REORIENTATION REORIENTATION & RECOVERY& RECOVERY
Erikson’s Two-Erikson’s Two-StepStep
Identity FormationIdentity Formation• Crisis: actively exploring alternative ways of being
• Commitment: selecting one way as part of one’s identity and excluding all others
Identity StatusCrisis Commitment
Diffused No NoForeclosed No Yes
Moratorium Yes NoAchieved Yes Yes
Erikson’s Two-Erikson’s Two-StepStep
Identity FormationIdentity Formation
Identity StatusCrisis Commitment
Diffused Reaction & Disorganization
Foreclosed Reaction
Moratorium
Reorganization
Achieved Recovery
ERIKSON & ERIKSON & STEPHENSONSTEPHENSON
Review one year of your life in terms of
Holmes & Rahe’s43-item Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
OUR “NO HOMEWORK”
Life Change Event# of times in the one
yearX the LCU’s
Retirement X 45
Change in health of family member
X 44
Pregnancy X 40
Gain of a new family member
X 39
Business readjustments
X 39
…and the camel’s back, next.
41. Stephenson, J.S. (1985). Death, grief, and mourning: Individual and social realities. New York: Free Press.
This work is the primary resource for information regarding the phases of grief, and these three phases take up only 10 of the 290 pages. John addresses the topics of death, grief and mourning with reference to academic research, diverse theories, literary descriptions, and first person accounts. This is a weighty work, but accessible, and it offers the type of understanding that increases acceptance.
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21. Kelly, L. (2000). Don't ask for the dead man's golf clubs: What to do and say (and what not to) when a friend loses a loved one. New York: Workman Publishing Company.
The title of this one allows you to reliably judge this book by its cover. Lynn has done a great service with this work – a copy of which I once loaned out, and I trust it is still changing hands somewhere even today. One woman whose husband had recently died found this book to be a great comfort in coming to terms with some of the distressing visits she received.
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