The Orphaned Adult Understanding And Coping With Grief And Change After The Death Of Our Parents

by Levy, Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780738203614
• ISBN10: 0738203610
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-19
• Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books

Summary

Losing our parents when we ourselves are adults is in the natural order of things, a rite of passage into true adulthood. But whether we lose them suddenly or after a prolonged illness, and whether we were close to or estranged from them, this passage proves inevitably more difficult than we thought it would be. A much-needed and knowledgeable discussion of this adult phenomenon,The Orphaned Adultvalidates the wide array of disorienting emotions that can accompany the death of our parents by sharing both the author's heart-felt experience of loss and the moving stories of countless adults who have shared their losses with him. From the recognition of our own mortality and sudden child-like sorrow to a sometimes-subtle change in identity or shift of roles in the surviving family,The Orphaned Adultguides readers through the storm of change this passage brings and anchors them with its compassionate and reassuring wisdom.

Author Biography

Alexander Levy has been a psychologist in private practice for over twenty years. He lives on a farm in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Here We Go-Loop-de-Loop
The Journey into the Unknown	3	(18)
Good Grief!
Aspects of Grief Associated with Parental Death	21	(22)
Just Exactly Who Do You Think You Are?
The Impact of Parental Death on Personal Identity	43	(20)
I'll Be Seeing You in All the Old Familiar Places
Ongoing Relationships with Parents After They Die	63	(22)
Dearly Beloved
Changes in Relationships with Others After Parents Die	85	(32)
Our Father, Who Art in Haven
Parental Death, the Eternal, and the Divine	117	(22)
Stormy Weather
The Hazards of Avoiding Grief	139	(16)
Learning to Swim
The Techniques of Grief	155	(24)
The Lesson
What We Can Learn from Parental Death	179