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

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.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Lipshitz, Marc

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kaminer, Debbie

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8188

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8188