The Spiritual Lives of Bereaved Parents

by Klass,Dennis

• ISBN13: 9780876309902
• ISBN10: 0876309902
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book describes how parents lose, find, or relocate spiritual anchors after the death of their child. It describes how ordinary people reconstruct their lives after their foundations have shifted, and how they make sense of their world after one of their centers of meaning has been removed. Klass grounds his descriptions of spirituality in his scholarly study of comparative religions, and in his two decades studying the lives of bereaved parents. He argues that continuing bonds with their dead children can give parents a new transcendent reality. Deceased children, like saints or bodhisattvas, can offer a bridge between the profane and sacred worlds, support parents as they find meaning in a world made forever poorer, and bind together a community adequate to parents' grief. The book reports Klass's clinical practice and his work as advisor to a bereaved parents self-help support group.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(2)
Preface	ix
1 The Aftermath of Spiritual Storms	1	(14)
Spiritual Anchors	3	(3)
Book's Setting	6	(5)
Some Thoughts for the Reader	11	(2)
Conclusion	13	(2)
2 The Spiritual Aspects of Parents' Grief	15	(30)
The Nature of the Spiritual	16	(5)
A Definition of Spiritual	21	(7)
The Nature of the Spiritual in Parental Grief	28	(9)
Parents' Continuing Bond with Their Child	37	(5)
Conclusion	42	(3)
3 Community and the Transformation of the Parent-Child Bond	45	(49)
Introduction: Death, Loss, and Continuing Bonds	46	(6)
The Transforming Community	52	(3)
Newly Bereaved, Into Their Grief, Well Along in Their Grief, Resolved as Much as it Will Be	55	(31)
Conclusions	86	(8)
4 Solace: Comfort within Devastation	94	(32)
The Parents' Pain	94	(1)
Definition of Solace	95	(5)
Solace within the Continuing Bond	100	(18)
Negative Solace: Revenge and Retribution	118	(3)
Solace and Immortality	121	(4)
Conclusion	125	(1)
5 Worldviews: Finding Order in the Universe	126	(40)
Worldviews at the Grass Roots	126	(14)
Maintaining or Remolding Worldviews	140	(22)
Conclusion	162	(4)
6 Implications for Professionals Who Want to Help	166	(39)
Billy	166	(5)
Helping Bereaved Parents in Their Spiritual Journey	171	(3)
A Web of Bonds and Meanings	174	(7)
Healing is within Community	181	(4)
Professionals' Worldviews	185	(9)
Optimism, Pessimisim, and the American Civil Religion	194	(8)
Conclusion	202	(3)
7 Research Method: How Can an Outsider Understand?	205	(14)
On Being an Advisor	206	(2)
Understanding Bereaved Parents in a Counseling Practice	208	(1)
The Study of Parental Bereavement	209	(5)
The Ethnographic Tradition	214	(5)
References	219	(6)
Index	225