What You Don’t Know About Grief and Loss
A healthy, new approach to an age-old human struggle.
So much has been written about grief and loss — nearly 250,000,000 articles, as of this writing, via a quick Google search. Could there really be anything more to add to the Brobdingnagian body of literature on the subject?
Yes, indeed, there is.
For the last two decades, I’ve been on what I’ll call a “souljourn” — studying, on the one hand, world religion, philosophy, ethics, culture, and conflict; and on the other, psychology generally, trauma specifically, and resilience. I’ve also worked as a therapist, clinical ethicist, and researcher. I’ve been present and births and deaths, held hands with those in the throes of despair, listened to and counseled people struggling with the weight of moral injury and moral distress, and sat in the room when the ultimate decisions about life were being made. I’ve also been on the precipice of existence myself on a few different occasions, having to do with my health. The human condition, with all its funk, strife, awe, and wonder, has been — and remains — the landscape of my life.
So, when I say that there is something crucial missing from all the “grief and loss” talk and approaches to healing, it comes from direct experience. And what’s missing is this: the…
