Disenfranchised Grief: An Exposition and Update Kenneth J. Doka

Doka, Kenneth J.

doi:10.2190/reac18

Cited by 92 publications

(171 citation statements)

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“…In some situations, cultural norms can prevent the loss of a loved one from being openly acknowledged, publicly mourned, or socially supported. The term disenfranchised grief denotes these situations (Doka, 2002 ). Cultural norms may condemn the person of the deceased (for example, a person on the wrong side during the war), the relationship with the deceased (for example, an extra-marital relationship) or the circumstances of the death.…”

Section: Determinants Of Meaning Attributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework of meaning attribution following loss

Smid

2020

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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The loss of a loved one causes the world and the place of the bereaved survivor in it to change irreversibly. A key aspect of the grieving process is the integration of the loss in the bereaved survivor's life story, identity change, and a new future orientation through meaning attribution. Meaning attribution can have favourable or unfavourable effects on the grieving process and hence determines the extent to which a loss disrupts the bereaved survivor's functioning. A framework of meaning attribution after loss is presented, comprising 17 determinants that fall into five categories: event-related, cultural, social, individual and relational determinants. Each determinant may lead to both positive and negative meanings, thereby facilitating or complicating the grieving process. The framework of meaning attribution highlights the importance of an integrated network for mental health care, spiritual care, and end-of-life care in the prevention and treatment of traumatic grief. It also emphasizes the support from relatives, collective rituals, cultural views, legal settlements, and other societal factors that may foster or impede adaptation to loss. The framework of meaning attribution informs research across a range of research themes, including specialist care for traumatic grief, a culturally sensitive care network for traumatic grief, and improving care for ambiguous loss in a global context.

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Section: Determinants Of Meaning Attributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework of meaning attribution following loss

Smid

2020

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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“…Doka defines disenfranchised grief as that felt by 'persons who experience a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, publicly mourned or socially supported'. 11 Not only did farmers report feeling isolated from their communities but they were often seen as 'responsible' for their own position and that of their neighbours.…”

Section: Experiences Of Loss and Griefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial Investigation of Individual and Community Responses to the Experience of Ovine Johne's Disease in Rural Victoria

Hood¹,

Seedsman

2004

Australian J Rural Health

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There is an acknowledgement in the literature that rural disasters have a significant impact on the well-being of individuals, families and communities. The major focus of the previous research has, however, been on the impact of economic losses with less recognition of the other psychosocial loss experiences that accompany the experience of rural disaster. This paper achieves a clear description of the experiences for individuals (trauma, stigma, sense of personal failure, loss of identity, diminished self esteem and family disruption) and communities (destroyed social cohesion, economic disharmony) caught up in the OJD disaster and explores the factors that individuals perceive as responsible for these outcomes. The mental health outcomes for individuals, such as, loss, grief and depression are also explored within this paper. This paper highlights the psychosocial complexity of the experience of rural disaster for individuals and communities significantly extending the current knowledge base in this area.

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“…Yet grief today is far from entirely escaping cultural norms that validate some relationships over others; thus, the death of a child is widely assumed to be harder than the death of an elderly parent; the death of a spouse harder than the death of a sibling; and the death of a sibling harder than that of a friend or colleague ( Doka, 2002 ; Fowlkes, 1990 ). In focusing on the loss of spouses and children, bereavement research on both sides of the Atlantic over many decades has reproduced cultural expectations about who should be mourned ( Parkes, 2008 ).…”

Section: Theoretical Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The funeral director contracts with just one person as client, typically a close family member. Critics of the mid-20th century American funeral denigrated the way it became an ostentatious display of family status ( Bowman, 1959 ); more recent critics have observed how funerals can disenfranchise the grief of nonfamily ( Doka, 2002 ); anecdotal observations by British mourners and funeral professionals, along with more systematic observation by researchers ( Clark, 1982 ; Howarth, 1996 ), indicate that close family always sit in the front row; and soap operas portray funerals as dramatic family events. So there are reasons to think that British and American funerals may have as much to do with family as with personal feeling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Funerals Accomplish Family: Findings From a Mass-Observation Study

Walter

Bailey

2018

Omega (Westport)

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The article analyses how potentially conflicting frames of grief and family operate in a number of English funerals. The data come from the 2010 Mass-Observation directive “Going to Funerals” which asked its panel of correspondents to write about the most recent funeral they had attended. In their writings, grief is displayed through conventional understandings of family. Drawing on Randall Collins, we show how the funeral stratifies mourners into family or nonfamily, a stratification accomplished—by family and nonfamily—through both outward display and inner feeling. The funerals described were more about a very traditional notion of family than about grief; family trumped grief, or at least provided the frame through which grief could be written about; and perceptions of “family” prompted emotions which in turn defined family. The funerals were portrayed as a distinct arena privileging family over the fluid and varied personal attachments highlighted in both the new sociology of personal life and in the concept of disenfranchised grief.

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Disenfranchised Grief: An Exposition and Update Kenneth J. Doka

Cited by 92 publications

References 0 publications

A framework of meaning attribution following loss

A framework of meaning attribution following loss

Psychosocial Investigation of Individual and Community Responses to the Experience of Ovine Johne's Disease in Rural Victoria

How Funerals Accomplish Family: Findings From a Mass-Observation Study

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