Anticipatory grief: A review (original) (raw)
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The social construction of anticipatory grief
Social Science & Medicine, 1996
As medical technology prolongs life and facilitates the early diagnosis of terminal illnesses such as AIDS, the concept of anticipatory grief requires further scrutiny. The original concept of anticipatory grief has become widely accepted. This paper, however, argues that the uncritical acceptance of this concept rests primarily on the authority of the biomedical model, which has focused analysis on the predictable symptomatology of the grief process, integrating this understanding into health care. This paper provides a critical review of the concept of anticipatory grief, highlighting conceptual shifts which are required if the concept is to be relevant to the subjective experiences of people who are confronted with life-threatening illness. The paper discusses the relevance of understanding the conceptual confusion which exists in the literature between "anticipatory grief' and "forewarning of loss". It is argued that grief may be the response to a loss of meaning, and that the psychological process of adjustment to loss requires individuals to engage in the reconstitution of purpose and meaning in their lives. Distinguishing between what is being expressed for past and present losses and what responses occur when individuals focus on various aspects of their future may shed light on some of the inconsistent and contradictory findings surrounding research on anticipatory grief.
International journal of palliative nursing, 2015
This article reports a systematic review of literature undertaken to identify characteristics and experiences of anticipatory mourning in caregivers of teenagers and young adults with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using the key words 'anticipatory', 'mourning', 'grief', and synonyms. This review focused on six studies that met inclusion criteria and reported characteristics of anticipatory mourning in caregivers of teenagers and young adults. Characteristics and experiences were sorted into four main themes: symptoms; a sense of loss; caregiver behaviour; and the unique experience of caring for, or losing, a teenager or young adult. The review suggests that there are characteristics and experiences of anticipatory mourning that are unique to caregivers of this age group. The review also suggests that consideration of anticipatory mourning is important in offering holistic care to young adults and...
Grief: A cognitive-behavioral analysis
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1977
Traditional views of grief are briefly examined, and a cognitive-behavioral analysis is offered. Particular attention is given to the role of social reinforcement and the possible consequences of the common "'conspiracy of silence'" which often follows the loss of a loved one. In this latter pattern, family and friends may withhold information about the death, avoid discussing the dead person, and remove all signs of the deceased from a patient's environment. The prolonged grief reactions which sometimes follow this type of reaction are likened to the Napalkov phenomenon and Eysenck's hypothesis about incubation of distress. To explore the implications of this analysis, four cases of pathological grief were treated with prolonged exposure to the stimuli producing grief and a rescheduling of social reinforcement. Remarkable success was observed in all cases despite their chronic nature, and suggestions are made for more controlled evaluation of this treatment strategy. Grief refers to a complex of behavioral, affective, cognitive, and somatic disturbances displayed by an individual following the death of a loved one, or indeed following the loss of any important relationship. In this respect grief may be considered to be a particular case of the more general malady of depression. Averill (1968) has described the typical features of this painful and almost universal experience. They include: (a) emotional responses such as feelings of distress, despair, anxiety, guilt, and even hostility; (b) disturbed motor behavior, for example, apathy, social withdrawal, fatigue, or more rarely, compulsive overactivity; (c) inappropriate cognitions such as preoccupation with thoughts of the deceased, an inability to concentrate on routine tasks, and lack of initiative; and (d) a wide variety of somatic 39
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1998
An exploration of anticipatory grief: the lived experience of people during their spouses' terminal illness and in bereavement Anticipatory grief has been the subject of much debate since Lindemann ®rst coined the term to describe premature mourning. Much of the research in this area takes a positivist approach focusing on the effect of anticipatory grief on bereavement. In contrast, this study, explores anticipatory grief through a Heideggerian phenomenological approach to elicit the experience of anticipatory grief. Unstructured interviews were conducted with four participants. The resulting data were interpreted using hermeneutics and evaluated using the criteria identi®ed by Madison. The themes arising from this interpretation identify the change the participants experienced. Although these ®ndings are limited to four participants, they are offered to raise awareness of the impact of multiple role loss and the impact of diagnosis on supporting partners. The ®ndings also raise ways in which nurses might support people experiencing loss.
Anticipatory Grief and Perceptions of the Future
2016
future? In order to respond to this question, I will first address literature on grief in order to contextualize my discussion of anticipatory grief and to show how a philosophical analysis of the anticipatory structure of this form of grieving addresses a gap in the literature. I will then provide a personal description of my lived experience of anticipatory grief. Following this, I will explicate Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theories of temporality and subjectivity, as well as his concepts of trauma and intentional arc, so that I can apply these theories to my descriptive example in order to reveal how the anticipatory structure of anticipatory grief can inform a subject’s personal perception of their future. Ultimately I will argue that anticipatory grief is an experience that has the capacity to traumatize one’s structure of personal time. Whether or not this occurs will depend upon how one accomplishes their existence in the taking up of a situation in the present m...
Outcomes for End-of-Life Patients With Anticipatory Grieving
Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 2017
Table 1 NANDA-I Anticipatory Grieving Diagnosis ANTICIPATORY GRIEVING Definition: Intellectual and emotional responses and behaviors by which individuals, families, and communities work through the process of modifying self-concept based on the perception of potential loss.
2013
The current thesis provides evidence concerning the maladaptive cognitive processes associated with severe grief symptoms. In a first study, negative appraisal of the loss- and the restoration-oriented stressors was found related to more severe grief symptoms. In addition, disequilibrium in the oscillation process (i.e., higher focus on loss-oriented strategies) was shown to be associated with higher levels of grief. Assiduous negative preoccupations with loss-related topics regardless of other types of daily life demands may thus contribute to the maintenance of severe grief reactions. In a second and a third study, mental rumination and intrusions were shown to be characterized by deficits in cognitive inhibition. The tendency to experience elevated level of mental rumination was characterized by fewer abilities to control the access of grief-related information. Furthermore, the tendency to experience frequent and distressful intrusions of grief was characterized by difficulties in the suppression of grief-related, negative, and positive representations. While first depicted as being distinct cognitive processes (in terms of mechanisms of action – namely avoidant or confrontational – and underlying cognitive processes), both kinds of maladaptive repetitive thought are proposed to be part of a single sequential process which may contribute to the development and the maintenance of prolonged grief reactions. As described, the later sequential process provides a stimulating framework that should be further validated in future research.