My reaction to the article is somewhat different from that of Nancy's. I can understand her reaction but as someone who's had his own share of bereavement, I would say that some people are able to get through the grieving process in a "reasonable" amount of time and others have great difficulty in doing so and may require assistance in getting through the process. The loss of a spouse, in contrast to the loss of a child, is a far more common event but it is recognized as a potentially risky situation for the surviving spouse because of the increased risk of that spouse's death, something referred to at the "widowhood effect". One review of the widowhood effect provides three general explanations for thie effect: (a) the death of a spouse directly causes the death of the surviving spouse through some process/mechanism, (b) "Homogamy", that is, husbands and wives are similar in many respects and one should expect a correlation between the time of death of one spouse and another, and (c) members of a couple are exposed to many of the same environmental variables which may cause the non-simulatneous death of both). More info can be obtained from a review by Elwert & Cristakis in their 2008 review article in the journal Demography which is available here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789302/
I admit to being surprised at people who are able to "snap back" after the death of a spouse and re-marry within a year a two -- I simply do not understand it. Similarly, the loss of a child, the loss of a parent, the loss of a close friend, the loss of a loved one, the loss of someone who had substantial meaning to one, all of these will be handled differently by different people. Some will get over the loss though it may take years, while some may never be able to get over the loss though, perhaps, the pain of the loss might be mitigated with passage of time. For this latter group, I think some form of psychotherapy may be appropriate in helping to process the loss, appreciate the significance of the loss, and to develop the rationale why one needs to move on. Just a couple of points more: (1) The widowhood effect varies by race. I'll leave it up to the reader to speculate what is the form of this interaction. Then go and read this: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/71/1/16.abstract (2) Severe bereavement effects have been seen with animals. The example that stands out in my memory is from the National Geographic's PBS special on Jane Goodall in which the male Flint, who had problems been weaned from his mother Flo, died shortly after her death, apparently from depression and grief; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasakela_chimpanzee_community#Flint I recommend watching the original documentary "Among the Wild Chimpanzees" to fully appreciate what happened. My own opinion is that pharamacotherapy is probably not very useful in this situation though for some it may provide some temporary relief. Losing a loved one under traumatic situations (e.g., watching them die in front of you) can also lead to PTSD which would have be dealt with seperate from the effects of grieving. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] On Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:14:09 -0700, Dr. Nancy Melucci wrote: >I just read the story. It is even more outrageous when they suggest >that the grieving for the loss of a child - the worst possible lost, made >even harder in modern times when so few of us experience it (so >more isolating than ever in an already death denying culture) - is >more like a treatable illness than a normal reaction. > >Two modern cultural themes emerge of course - fear of being sued >("I'd rather call it depression...") and of course the gigantic gold mine >that labeling more and more of the colorful, unsettling and some times >deeply painful emotional states that comprise a full life has become to >psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry. > >I have become more and more comfortable in my lectures criticizing >the unscientific and shoddy construction of the DSM. And teaching >the views of Szasz as serious insights and not the rantings of a fringe >dweller. > >When we are happy all the time, no one will be happy anymore. > >Nancy Melucci >Long Beach City Colleg >Long Beach CA -----Original Message----- From: Dennis Goff <[email protected]> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 6:52 am Subject: [tips] DSM and grieving I heard this story on NPR yesterday morning and thought that it could be used as a nice introduction to some of the controversies surrounding the new edition of the DSM or even a class discussion about the definition of a psychological disorders. The story discusses diagnosing “grief reactions” as a depression. “The DSM committee removed the bereavement exclusion — a small, almost footnote at the bottom of the section that describes the symptoms of major depression — from the manual.” The title of the piece – “Is Emotional Pain Necessary?” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128874986&ps=cprs tiny http://tinyurl.com/2g7yc22 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=3964 or send a blank email to leave-3964-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
