The Public and Private Management of Grief : Recovering Normal

Through a critical analysis of theory, policy and practice, __The Public and Private Management of Grief__ looks at how 'recovery' is the prevailing discourse that measures and frames how people grieve, and considers what happens when people 'fail' to recover. Pearce draws on in-depth interviews with bereaved people and a range of bereavement professionals, to contemplate how ‘failures’ to recover are socially perceived and acted upon. Grounded in Foucauldian theory, this book problematises the notion of recovery, and instead argues for the acknowledgment of the experience of ‘non-recovery,’ highlighting how recovery is a socially and historically constructed notion linked to the individualised vision of health and happiness promoted by neo-liberal governmentality. This book will be of interest to students and scholars across sociology, anthropology, social work and psychology with a focus on death, dying and bereavement, grief studies, health and social care, as well as counsellors, clinical psychologists and social workers. Preface 5 Contents 8 List of Tables 10 1 Introduction: Recovering Normal 11 Recovering Normal 12 Public and Private Grief 14 Framing Non-recovery 19 Problematising Grief 21 Background to the Study 24 Outline of the Book 26 References 27 2 Grief as a Psychological Object of Study 33 A Brief History of the Study of Grief 34 Freudian Beginnings 34 Grief as a Syndrome 38 Grief as a Process 42 The Need for Expert Help 45 A ‘New Dawn’ of Bereavement Research? 47 Continuing Bonds 49 Meaning-Making and Stories 50 A Medical Model of Grief 52 The Social Construction of Grief 55 The Policing of Grief 57 The Disciplining of Grief 59 Conclusion 61 References 63 3 Making Sense of Grief 70 Public Narratives of Grief and Recovery 73 Grief as a Disorder 73 No Health Without Mental Health 75 A Happiness Agenda 78 The Journey to Recovery 81 A Culture of Trauma 84 A Private Vocabulary for Grief 86 Narratives of Grief 86 Rational and Symbolic Explanations 91 Failing to Make Sense of Grief 98 Public and Private Narratives of Grief 101 References 104 4 Affective Practices: Managing Grief 111 Rituals 113 Distractions 113 Negotiating Space and Objects 116 Grief Work in Practice 120 The Type of Counselling Approach and Method 123 The Making of the Bereavement Expert 126 Counselling as Normalisation 129 Emotion Work 131 Agents of Change: Negotiating Recovery 133 Failing to Perform Grief 141 The Work of Recovery 145 References 148 5 Emotions, Bodies, Practices 152 Grief and Liminality 154 Theorising Emotions 158 Theorising Bodies 164 Managing Emotions and Bodies 171 Theorising ‘The Blob’ 176 References 180 6 Inhabiting and Resisting Identities 186 Constructing Identities 188 Recovered Identities 191 Relational Identities 194 Resistant Identities 201 Recovering the Identity of the Complicated Griever 208 References 213 7 The Other Side of Recovery 216 Theorising Grief: An Alternative View 217 Problematising Grief as a Psychological Object of Study 217 Highlighting Relationality and Ambivalence 219 Why ‘Non-recovery’ Matters 222 The ‘Complicated Griever’: Construct or Reality? 224 The Future of Bereavement Research and Practice 227 References 229 Appendix A: Tables of Participants 231 Appendix B: Bereavement Organisations—Detailed Information 233 Index 236 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction: Recovering Normal (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 1-22 Grief as a Psychological Object of Study (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 23-59 Making Sense of Grief (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 61-101 Affective Practices: Managing Grief (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 103-143 Emotions, Bodies, Practices (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 145-178 Inhabiting and Resisting Identities (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 179-208 The Other Side of Recovery (Caroline Pearce)....Pages 209-223 Back Matter ....Pages 225-233