Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:55:45.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Family Grief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David W. Kissane*
Affiliation:
Monash University Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, Victoria, Australia
Sidney Bloch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, St Vincent's Hospital, Victoria, Australia
*
Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Road, Clayton, 3168, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

As grief is both an individual and shared experience, adopting a systemic perspective is most appropriate for health-care professionals seeking to assist the bereaved. Within this framework, the family virtually always constitutes the most significant social group in which grief is experienced. In this paper we review the literature on family grief, covering clinical case reports, the observations of family therapists, systematic family bereavement research and family intervention studies. An understanding of patterns of family grief and vulnerability factors for morbid grief is pivotal to both preventive intervention and treatment of an established disorder.

Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D. S. & Eichberg, C. (1991) Effects on infant-mother attachment of mother's unresolved loss of an attachment figure, or other traumatic experience. In Attachment Through the Life Cycle (eds Parkes, C. M., Stevenson-Hinde, J. & Marris, P.). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bass, D. M., Bowman, K. & Noekler, L. S. (1991) The influence of caregiving and bereavement support on adjusting to an older relative's death. The Gerontologist, 31, 3241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benfield, D. G., Leib, S. A. & Vollman, J. H. (1978) Grief response of parents to neonatal death and parent participation in deciding care. Pediatrics, 62, 171177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berkowitz, D. A. (1977) On the reclaiming of denied affects in family therapy. Family Process, 16, 495501.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, D. (1981) Mourning and the family. In Developments in Family Therapy. Theories and Applications Since 1948 (ed. Walrond-Skinner, S.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Black, D. & Urbanowicz, M. A. (1985) Bereaved children – family intervention. In Recent Research in Developmental Psychopathology (ed. Stevenson, J.), pp. 179187. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Black, D. & Urbanowicz, M. A. (1987) Family intervention with bereaved children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 28, 467476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bloch, S. (1991) A systems approach to loss. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 25, 471480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bluglass, K. (1980) Psychiatric morbidity after cot death. The Practitioner, 224, 533539.Google ScholarPubMed
Bohman, M. & Sigvardsson, S. (1978) An 18-year prospective, longitudinal study of adopted boys. In The Child in His Family. Vulnerable Children, Vol. 4 (eds Anthony, E. J., Koupernik, C. & Chiland, C.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Bowlby-West, L. (1983) The impact of death on the family system. Journal of Family Therapy, 5, 279294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, M. (1976) Family reaction to death. In Family Therapy: Theory and Practice (ed. Guerin, P. J.), pp. 335348. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Byng-Hall, J. (1988) Scripts and legends in families and family therapy. Family Process, 27, 167180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byng-Hall, J. (1991) Family scripts and loss. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.), pp. 130143. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Cain, A. C. & Cain, B. S. (1964) On replacing a child. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 3, 443456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carter, E. A. & McGoldrick, M. (1980) The Family Life Cycle: a Framework for Family Therapy. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Clayton, P. J. (1975) The effect of living alone on bereavement symptoms. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 133137.Google ScholarPubMed
Cordell, A. S. & Thomas, N. (1990) Fathers and grieving: coping with an infant death. Journal of Perinatology, 10, 7580.Google ScholarPubMed
Cornwell, J., Nurcombe, B. & Stevens, L. (1977) Family response to loss of a child by sudden infant death syndrome. Medical Journal of Australia, 1, 656658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosby, J. & Jose, N. (1983) Death: family adjustment to loss. In Stress and the Family, Volume II (eds McCubbin, H. & Figley, C.). New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Davies, B., Spinetta, J., Martinson, I., et al (1986) Manifestations of levels of functioning in grieving families. Journal of Family Issues, 7, 297313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, A. (1990) Parental reactions to the loss of an infant child: a review. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 31, 266280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, A. & Matthiesen, S. B. (1987a) Similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' grief following the death of an infant. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 28, 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, A. & Matthiesen, S. B. (1987b) Anxiety and vulnerability in parents following the death of an infant. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 28, 1625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, A. & Matthiesen, S. B. (1987c) Stillbirth, neonatal death and sudden infant death syndrome: parental reactions. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 28, 104114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyregrov, A. & Matthiesen, S. B. (1991) Parental grief following the death of an infant – a follow up over one year. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 32, 193207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenbruch, M. (1984a) Cross-cultural aspects of bereavement. I: A conceptual framework for comparative analysis. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 8, 283309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenbruch, M. (1984b) Cross-cultural aspects of bereavement. II: Ethnic and cultural variations in the development of bereavement practices. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 8, 315347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, N.B., Baldwin, L. M. & Bishop, D. S. (1983) The McMaster family assessment device. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 9, 171180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrest, G. C. (1983) Mourning the loss of a new baby. Bereavement Care, 2, 45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrest, G. C., Standfish, E. & Baum, J. D. (1982) Support after perinatal death: a study of support and counselling after perinatal bereavement. British Medical Journal, 285, 14751479.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fulton, R. & Gottesman, D. J. (1980) Anticipatory grief: a psychosocial concept reconsidered. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 4554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelcer, E. (1983) Mourning is a family affair. Family Process, 22, 501516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glick, I. O., Weiss, R. S. & Parkes, C. M. (1974) The First Year of Bereavement. New York: Wiley Interscience.Google Scholar
Grotevant, H. D. & Carlson, C. I. (1989) Family Assessment. A Guide to Methods and Measures. London: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Gurman, A. S. & Kniskern, D. P. (1978) Deterioration in marital and family therapy: empirical, clinical and conceptual issues. Family Process, 17, 320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gurman, A. S. & Kniskern, D. P. (eds) (1991) Handbook of Family Therapy (2nd edn). New York: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Haig, R. A. (1990) The Anatomy of Grief: Biopsychosocial and Therapeutic Perspectives. Illinois: Thomas.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J., Marmar, C., Weiss, D. S., et al (1984) Brief psychotherapy of bereavement reactions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 438448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horowitz, M. J., Weiss, D. S., Kaltreider, N., et al (1984) Reactions to the death of a parent. Results from patients and field subjects. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 383392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imber-Black, E. (1989) Idiosyncratic life cycle transitions and therapeutic rituals. In The Changing Family Cycle: a Framework for Family Therapy (eds Carter, B. & McGoldrick, M.), 2nd edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Imber-Black, E. (1991) Rituals and the healing process. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.). New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Jensen, G. D. & Wallace, J. G. (1967) Family mourning process. Family Process, 6, 5666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krupnick, J. L. & Horowitz, M. J. (1985) Brief psychotherapy with vulnerable patients: an outcome assessment. Psychiatry, 48, 223233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurell-Borulf, Y. (1982) Krislösning i langtidsperspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Large, T. (1989) Some aspects of loneliness in families. Family Process, 28, 2535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, S. (1978) Nineteen cases of morbid grief. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 159163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberman, S. & Black, D. (1982) Loss, mourning and grief. In Family Therapy: Complementary Frameworks of Theory and Practice (eds Bentovim, A., Barnes, G. G. & Cooklin, A.), pp. 373387. London: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Lopata, H. Z. (1979) Women as Widows. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
McGoldrick, M. (1991) Echoes from the past: helping families mourn their losses. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.), pp. 5078. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
McGoldrick, M. & Walsh, F. (1991) A time to mourn: death and the family life cycle. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.), pp. 3049. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Maddison, D. C. & Walker, W. I. (1967) Factors affecting the outcome of conjugal bereavement. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 10571067.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maddison, D. C. & Raphael, B. (1975) Conjugal bereavement and the social network. In Bereavement: Its Psychosocial Aspects (ed. Schoenberg, B.). New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Malinak, D. P., Hoyt, M. F. & Patterson, V. (1979) Adult's reactions to the death of a parent: a preliminary study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 11521156.Google Scholar
Mawson, D., Marks, I. M., Ramm, L., et al (1981) Guided mourning for morbid grief: a controlled study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 185193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melges, F. T. & DeMaso, D. R. (1980) Grief-resolution therapy: reliving, revising and revisiting. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 34, 5161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Middleton, W. & Raphael, B. (1987) Bereavement. State of the art and state of the science. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 10, 329343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, F., Dworkin, J., Ward, M., et al (1990) A preliminary study of unresolved grief in families of seriously mentally ill patients. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 41, 13211325.Google ScholarPubMed
Minuchin, S. (1974) Families and Family Therapy. Boston: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minuchin, P. & Minuchin, S. (1987) The family as the context for patient care. In Primary Care in the Home (eds Berstein, L. H., Greico, A. J. & Dete, M.), pp. 8394. Philadelphia: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Munson, S. W. (1978) Family structure and the family's general adaptation to loss. In The Child and Death (ed. Sahler, D. J. Z.), pp. 2942. St Louis: CV Mosby.Google Scholar
Murray, J. & Callan, V. J. (1988) Predicting adjustment to perinatal death. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 61, 237244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholas, A. M. & Lewin, T. J. (1986) Grief reactions of parental couples: congenital handicap and cot death. Medical Journal of Australia, 144, 292296.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nixon, J. & Pearn, J. (1977) Emotional sequelae of parents and sibs following the drowning or near-drowning of a child. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 11, 265268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norris, F. H. & Murrell, S. A. (1987) Older adult family stress and adaptation before and after bereavement. Journal of Gerontology, 42, 606612.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olson, D. H., McCubbin, H. I., Barnes, H., et al (1983) Families. What Makes Them Work. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Osterweis, M., Solomon, F. & Green, M. (eds) (1984) Bereavement Reactions, Consequences and Care. Washington: National Academic Press.Google Scholar
Osterweis, M., Solomon, F. & Green, M. (1987) Bereavement reactions, consequences and care. In Biopsychosocial Aspects of Bereavement (ed. Zisook, S.), pp. 318. Washington: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M. (1972) Components of the reaction to loss of a limb, spouse or home. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 16, 343349.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkes, C. M. (1980) Bereavement counselling: does it work? British Medical Journal, 281, 36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkes, C. M. & Brown, R. J. (1972) Health after bereavement. Psychosomatic Medicine, 34, 449461.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkes, C. M. & Weiss, R. S. (1983) Recovery from Bereavement. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Parrish, G. A., Holdren, K. S. & Skiendzielewski, J. J. (1987) Emergency department experience with sudden death: a survey of survivors. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 16, 792.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paul, N. L. & Grosser, G. H. (1964) Family resistance to change in schizophrenic patients. Family Process, 3, 377401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, N. L. & Grosser, G. H. (1965) Operational mourning and its role in conjoint family therapy. Community Mental Health Journal, 1, 339345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peppers, L. G. & Knapp, R. J. (1980) Maternal reactions to involuntary fetal/infant death. Psychiatry, 43, 155159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pincus, L. (1974) Death and the Family. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Pollock, G. H. (1989) The Mourning – Liberation Process. Madison, Connecticut: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Ponzetti, J. J. (1992) Bereaved families: a comparison of parents' and grandparents' reactions to the death of a child. Omega, 25, 6371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raphael, B. (1984) The Anatomy of Bereavement. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Reiss, D. (1981) The Family's Construct of Reality. Boston: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reiss, D. (1990) Patient, family and staff responses to end-stage renal disease. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 15, 194200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rolland, J. S. (1990) Anticipatory loss: a family systems developmental framework. Family Process, 29, 229244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolland, J. S. (1991) Helping families with anticipatory loss. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.). New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, P. A. (1980) Short-term family therapy and pathological grief resolution with children and adolescents. Family Process, 19, 151159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1989) Pathways from childhood to adult life. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 2351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Satir, V. (1967) Conjoint Family Therapy. Palo Alto, California: Science and Behaviour Books.Google Scholar
Shanfield, S. B. & Swain, B. J. (1984) Death of adult children in traffic accidents. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 533538.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shanfield, S. B., Benjamin, G. A. H. & Swain, B. J. (1984) Parents' reactions to the death of an adult child from cancer. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 10921094.Google Scholar
Theut, S. K., Pedersen, F. A., Zaslow, M. J., et al (1989) Perinatal loss and parental bereavement. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 635639.Google ScholarPubMed
Theut, S. K., Zaslow, M. J., Rabinovich, B. A., et al (1990) Resolution of parental bereavement after a perinatal loss. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 521525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tizard, B. (1977) Adoption: A Second Chance. London: Open Books.Google Scholar
Tudehope, D. I., Iredell, J., Rodgers, D., et al (1986) Neonatal death: grieving families. Medical Journal of Australia, 144, 290292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Videka-Sherman, L. (1982) Coping with the death of a child. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52, 688698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vollman, R. R., Ganzert, A., Picher, L., et al (1971) The reactions of family systems to sudden and unexpected death. Omega, 2, 101106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M. (1991) Loss and the family: a systemic perspective. In Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family (eds Walsh, F. & McGoldrick, M.), pp. 129. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Walters, D. T. & Tupin, J. P. (1991) Family grief in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, 9, 189206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, R. S. (1974) Loneliness: the Experience of Emotional and Social Isolation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Welldon, R. M. C. (1971) The “shadow of death” and its implications in four families, each with a hospitalized schizophrenic member. Family Process, 10, 281302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, W. V. & Polak, P. R. (1979) Follow-up research in primary prevention: a model of adjustment in acute grief. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 35, 3545.3.0.CO;2-O>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, S., Pope, A., Robson, W. J., et al (1985) Bereavement counselling after sudden infant death. British Medical Journal, 290, 363365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Worden, J. W. (1991) Grief Counselling and Grief Therapy (2nd edn). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Zarit, S. H. & Zarit, J. M. (1984) Psychological approaches to families of the elderly. In Chronic Illness and Disability Through the Lifespan: Effects on Self and Family (eds Eisenberg, M. G., Sutkin, L. C. & Jansen, M. A.). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.