Loss : Sadness and Depression

by Bowlby, John

• ISBN13: 9780465042388
• ISBN10: 0465042384
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1982-10-20
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Bowlby's seminal contribution to the way we understand attachment concludes with an examination of loss. He offers not only a new developmental model but also rare insight into the dynamics of mourning, the problems of depression, and the processes of accommodation and healing. An appreciation by Daniel Stern, whose research on the mother/infant bond affirms and expands on Bowlby's work, fittingly graces this new edition.

Author Biography

John Bowlby is honorary staff member of the Tavistock Clinic in London.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Preface	1	(6)
Part I: Observations, Concepts and Controversies
The Trauma of Loss	7	(16)
Prelude	7	(2)
Grief in infancy and early childhood	9	(5)
Do young children mourn? a controversy	14	(5)
Detachment	19	(4)
The Place of Loss and Mourning in Psychopathology	23	(15)
A clinical tradition	23	(1)
Ideas regarding the nature of mourning processes, healthy and pathological	24	(10)
Ideas to account for individual differences in response to loss	34	(4)
Conceptual Framework	38	(6)
Attachment theory: an outline	38	(3)
Stressors and states of stress and distress	41	(3)
An Information Processing Approach to Defence	44	(31)
A new approach	44	(1)
Exclusion of information from further processing	44	(2)
Subliminal perception and perceptual defence	46	(6)
Stages at which processes of defensive exclusion may operate	52	(7)
Self or selves	59	(5)
Some consequences of defensive exclusion	64	(5)
Conditions that promote defensive exclusion	69	(3)
Defensive exclusion: adaptive or maladaptive	72	(3)
Plan of Work	75	(6)
Part II: The Mourning of Adults
Loss of Spouse	81	(31)
Sources	81	(4)
Four phases of mourning	85	(18)
Differences between widows and widowers	103	(3)
Note: details of sources	106	(6)
Loss of Child	112	(14)
Introduction	112	(1)
Parents of fatally ill children	113	(9)
Parents of infants who are stillborn or die early	122	(2)
Affectional bounds of different types: a note	124	(2)
Mourning in Other Cultures	126	(11)
Beliefs and customs common to many cultures	126	(6)
Mourning a grown son in Tikopia	132	(2)
Mourning a husband in Japan	134	(3)
Disordered Variants	137	(35)
Two main variants	137	(4)
Chronic mounrning	141	(11)
Prolonged absence of conscious grieving	152	(9)
Mislocations of the lost person's presence	161	(8)
Euphoria	169	(3)
Conditions Affecting the Course of Mourning	172	(30)
Five categories of variable	172	(1)
Identity and role of person lost	173	(5)
Age and sex of person bereaved	178	(2)
Causes and circumstances of loss	180	(7)
Social and psychological circumstances affecting the bereaved	187	(8)
Evidence from therapeutic intervention	195	(7)
Personalities Prone to Disordered Mourning	202	(12)
Limitations of evidence	202	(1)
Disposition to make anxious and ambivalent relationships	203	(3)
Disposition towards compulsive caregiving	206	(5)
Disposition to assert independence of affectional ties	211	(11)
Tentative conclusions	222
Childhood Experiences of Persons Prone to Disordered Mourning	214	(15)
Traditional theories	214	(1)
The position adopted	214	(4)
Experiences disposing towards anxious and ambivalent attachment	218	(4)
Experiences disposing towards compulsive caregiving	222	(2)
Experiences disposing towards assertion of independence of affectional ties	224	(5)
Cognitive Processes Contributing to Variations in Response to Loss	229	(16)
A framework for conceptualizing cognitive processes	229	(3)
Cognitive biases affecting responses to loss	232	(2)
Biases contributing to chronic mourning	234	(5)
Biases contributing to prolonged absence of grieving	239	(1)
Biased perceptions of potential comforters	240	(2)
Biases contributing to a healthy outcome	242	(1)
Interaction of cognitive biases with other conditions affecting responses to loss	243	(2)
Sadness, Depression and Depressive Disorder	245	(20)
Sadness and depression	245	(1)
Depressive disorder and childhood experience	246	(4)
Depressive disorders and their relation to loss: George Brown's study	250	(11)
The role of neurophysiological processes	261	(4)
Part III: The Mourning of Children
Death of Parent during Childhood and Adolescence	265	(11)
Sources and plan of work	265	(6)
When and what a child is told	271	(2)
Children's ideas about death	273	(3)
Children's Responses when Conditions are Favourable	276	(19)
Mourning in two four-year-olds	276	(9)
Some tentative conclusions	285	(5)
Differences between children's mourning and adults'	290	(2)
Behaviour of surviving parents to their bereaved children	292	(3)
Childhood Bereavement and Psychiatric Disorder	295	(16)
Increased risk of psychiatric disorder	295	(5)
Some disorders to which childhood bereavement contributes	300	(11)
Conditions Responsible for Differences in Outcome	311	(9)
Sources of evidence	311	(1)
Evidence from surveys	312	(5)
Evidence from therapeutic studies	317	(3)
Children's Responses when Conditions are Unfavourable	320	(25)
Four Children whose mourning failed	320	(1)
Peter, eleven when father died	321	(6)
Henry, eight when mother died	327	(6)
Visha, ten when father died	333	(5)
Geraldine, eitht when mother died	338	(7)
Deactivation and the Concept of Segregated Systems	345	(5)
Disordered Variants and Some Conditions Contributing	350	(31)
Persisting anxiety	351	(3)
Hopes of reunion: desire to die	354	(4)
Persisting blame and guilt	358	(3)
Overactivity: aggressive and destructive outbursts	361	(4)
Compulsive caregiving and self-reliance	365	(5)
Euphoria and depersonalization	370	(6)
Identificatory symptoms: accidents	376	(5)
Effects of a Parent's Suicide	381	(9)
Proportion of parents' deaths due to suicide	381	(1)
Findings from surveys	382	(1)
Findings from therapeutic studies	383	(7)
Responses to Loss during the Third and Fourth Years	390	(22)
Questions remaining	390	(1)
Responses when conditions are favourable	390	(7)
Responses when conditions are unfavourable	397	(15)
Responses to Loss during the Second Year	412	(13)
A transitional period	412	(1)
Responses when conditions are favourable	412	(4)
Responses when conditions are unfavourable	416	(9)
Young Children's Responses in the Light of Early Cognitive Development	425	(16)
Developing the concept of person permanence	425	(8)
The role of person permanence in determining responses to separation and loss	433	(8)
Epilogue	441	(2)
Bibliography	443	(20)
Author Index	463	(4)
Subject Index	467