1st Edition

Complicated Grief Scientific Foundations for Health Care Professionals

Edited By Margaret Stroebe, Henk Schut, Jan van den Bout Copyright 2013
    352 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    352 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    How can complicated grief be defined? How does it differ from normal patterns of grief and grieving? Who among the bereaved is particularly at risk? Can clinical intervention reduce complications?

    Complicated Grief provides a balanced, up-to-date, state-of-the-art account of the scientific foundations surrounding the topic of complicated grief. In this book, Margaret Stroebe,Henk Schut and Jan van den Bout address the basic questions about the concept, manifestations and phenomena associated with complicated grief. They bring together researchers from different disciplines, providing a broad range of cultural and societal perspectives, to enable the reader to access the scientific knowledge base regarding complicated grief, on both theoretical and empirical levels.

    The book is divided into four main sections:

    • An exploration of the nature of complicated grief
    • Diagnostic categorizations
    • Contemporary research on complicated grief
    • Treament of complicated grief

    Illuminating the foundations and new innovations in research, Complicated Grief will be essential reading for professionals working with bereavement such as clinical psychologists, health psychologists and psychiatrists, researchers, as well as graduate students of psychology and psychiatry.

    Margaret Stroebe is Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, and the Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen,The Netherlands.

    Henk Schut is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

    Jan van den Bout is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

    Contributors: Paul Boelen, Kathrin Boerner, George Bonanno, Laurie Burke, Rachel Cooper, Atle Dyregrov, Kari Dyregrov, Francesca Del Gaudio,  Ann-Marie Golden, Jennifer Jacobs, David Kissane, Rolf Kleber, Yeulin Li, Jeffrey Looi, Anthony Mancini, Mario Mikulincer, Michelle Moulds, Robert Neimeyer, Mary-Frances O'Connor, John Ogrodniczuk, William Piper, Holly G. Prigerson, Therese Rando, Beverley Raphael,  Paul C. Rosenblatt, Edward Rynearson, Henk A.W. Schut, Phillip Shaver, Margaret S. Stroebe, Jan van den Bout, Marcel van den Hout, Birgit Wagner, Jerome C. Wakefield, Edward Watkins, Talia I. Zaider.

     

    Preface. Part I: Introduction. Stroebe, Schut, & van den Bout, Outline and Scope of the Book. Part II. The Nature of Complicated Grief: Conceptual Approaches. Cooper, Complicated Grief: Philosophical Perspectives. Rosenblatt, The Concept of Complicated Grief: Lessons From Other Cultures. Rando, On Achieving Clarity Regarding Complicated Grief: Lessons from Clinical Practice. Boerner, Mancini & Bonanno, On the Nature and Prevalence of Uncomplicated and Complicated Patterns of Grief. A. Dyregrov & K. Dyregrov, Complicated Grief in Children. Part III. Diagnostic Categorization: Scientific, Clinical & Societal Implications. Boelen & Prigerson, Prolonged Grief Disorder as a New Psychiatric Category in DSM-5. Wakefield, Is Complicated/Prolonged Grief a Disorder? Why the Proposal to Add a Category of Complicated Grief Disorder to the DSM-5 is Conceptually and Empirically Unsound. van den Bout & Kleber, Lessons from PTSD for Complicated Grief as a new Psychiatric Condition. Raphael, Jacobs & Looi, Complicated Grief in the Context of Other Disorders: PTSD. Part IV. Contemporary Research on Risk Factors, Processes, & Mechanisms. Burke & Neimeyer, Prospective Risk Factors for Complicated Grief: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Watkins & Moulds, Repetitive Thought: Rumination in Complicated Grief. Golden, Autobiographical Memory Processes in Complicated Grief. Mikulincer & Shaver, Attachment Insecurities and Disordered Patterns of Grief. O’Connor, Physiological Mechanisms and the Neurobiology of Complicated Grief. Part V. Treatment of Complicated Grief: Principles, Paradigms and Procedures. Boelen, van den Hout & van den Bout, Prolonged Grief Disorder: Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Therapy. Wagner, Internet-Based Bereavement Interventions and Support: An Overview. Kissane, Zaider, Li & Del Gaudio Family Therapy for Complicated Grief. Piper & Ogrodniczuk, Brief Group Therapies for Complicated Grief: Interpretative and Supportive Approaches. Rynearson, Schut & Stroebe, Complicated Grief After Violent Death: Identification and Intervention. Part VI. Conclusions. Stroebe, Schut & van den Bout, Complicated Grief: Assessment of Scientific Knowledge & Implications for Research and Practice.

    Biography

    Margaret Stroebe is Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, and the Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

    Henk Schut is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

    Jan van den Bout is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

    "This is truly a superior book that needs to be read by researchers, practitioners, academics, and other professionals. It is an excellent analysis of where the field is at this time and a vision of where it might be going in the future. In this time of flux, it is a beacon of stability! I highly recommend this book!" – Gerry R. Cox, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, USA

    Stroebe, Schut and van den Bout have succeeded in drawing together leading researchers, clinicians and academics who, between them, provide a comprehensive view of a complex and contentious area of discourse that has important implications for us all.” – Colin Murray Parkes, author of Love and Loss and Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life, 4th Edition

    "The book provides an up-to-date, state-of-the-art focus on complicated grief. It is addressed to researchers, practitioners and policymakers whose work brings them up against the controversies. While any number of issues resurface time and again in different chapters, the overall effect is not one of unnecessary repetition but rather of a deepening and broadening of understanding. This book makes it clear that the focus on the complications of grief has been positive and has accelerated the understanding of loss, grief and mourning in both the professional and public spheres." – Ruth Malkinson and Simon Shimshon Rubin, Therapy Today, May 2013

    "Clinicians, researchers and policy makers will benefit from the wealth of research presented in this volume. (…) As a grief counsellor, this book has significantly expanded my knowledge and understanding of grief in all its complexities. It challenges assumptions about CG and will continue to inform my practice (...) It provides an excellent basis for sensitively furthering the care of bereaved people." – Jane Groom, The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement, Vol 14, No 3, Summer 2014