Meaning-making processes among bereaved mothers who have lost a child to cancer

Lipshitz, Marc

Meaning-making processes among bereaved mothers who have lost a child to cancer

Master Thesis

2007

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

The loss of a child constitutes a crisis of meaning, as prior meaning structures and fundamental assumptions about the world are shattered, and the natural order of life and death is undennined. Traditional models of mourning, premised on Freud's 'grief work' approach, do not address the concept of meaning-making (cognitive mastery and renewed purpose) during the grieving process, and only recently have theoretical models begun to recognize the importance of meaning-making in adjustment postloss. Grounded theory analysis of semi-structured interviews was employed in order to learn how ten bereaved mothers, ranging from thirty-five to seventy-six years of age make sense of, and cope after, losing a child to cancer.

Description

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-93).

Keywords

Clinical Psychology

Reference:

Collections

Masters

Full item page