The myth of closure Ambiguous loss in a time of pandemic and change

Pauline Boss

Book - 2022

"How do we begin to cope with loss that cannot be resolved? The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us haunted by feelings of anxiety, despair, and even anger. In this book, pioneering therapist Pauline Boss identifies these vague feelings of distress as ambiguous loss. This is what we experience when a loss remains unclear and undefined, and thus lingers indefinitely. Now, with a pandemic that has upended the lives of people across the globe, we are collectively experiencing ambiguous loss-loss of trust in the world as a safe place and loss of certainty about our healthcare, education for our children, employment, and the rebuilding of our lives after so much loss. Here, you will find guidance for beginning to cope with this lingering ...distress, and even learn how this time of pandemic has taught us to tolerate ambiguity, build resilience, and emerge from crises stronger than we were before"--

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Subjects
Published
New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Pauline Boss (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xxii, 180 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781324016816
  • Acknowledgments
  • Preface
  • Part 1. What Just Happened?
  • Chapter 1. Ambiguous Loss
  • Chapter 2. The Myth of Closure
  • Chapter 3. Racism as Unresolved Loss
  • Part 2. Staying Strong and Resilient
  • Chapter 4. Resilience: Our Best Hope in the Face of Ambiguous Loss
  • Chapter 5. The Paradox of Absence and Presence
  • Chapter 6. Both/And Thinking
  • Chapter 7. Six Guidelines for the Resilience to Live With Loss
  • Chapter 8. If Not Closure, What's Normal Grief?
  • Chapter 9. Loss and Change
  • Afterword
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index
Review by Library Journal Review

An expert in the areas of trauma therapy, grief, and family stress--in March alone, she was featured in the Atlantic (We Have To Grieve Our Last Good Days) and the New York Times (Mom Is Really Different: Nursing Homes Reopen to Joy and Grief)--Boss here addresses the free-floating anxiety, upset, and anger we feel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She calls it ambiguous loss, as we aren't sure what's missing even as we fret about our families, our jobs, and our futures, and she has advice for coping.

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