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THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE BOUNDS OF GRIEF

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2021

Louise Richardson ,
Matthew Ratcliffe ,
Becky Millar  and
Eleanor Byrne
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Abstract

This article addresses the question of whether certain experiences that originate in causes other than bereavement are properly termed ‘grief’. To do so, we focus on widespread experiences of grief that have been reported during the Covid-19 pandemic. We consider two potential objections to a more permissive use of the term: (i) grief is, by definition, a response to a death; (ii) grief is subject to certain norms that apply only to the case of bereavement. Having shown that these objections are unconvincing, we sketch a positive case for a conception of grief that is not specific to bereavement, by noting some features that grief following bereavement shares with other experiences of loss.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 20 , Issue 57 , Spring 2021 , pp. 89 - 101
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2021

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