[The subjective experience of contact with the deceased or necrophany: a widespread and little-known phenomenon]. / Le vécu subjectif de contact avec un défunt ou nécrophanie : un phénomène répandu et peu connu.

The subjective experience of contact with the deceased (VSCD), spontaneous and direct, by people most often in mourning, is neither rare nor new. It's even considered a universal and timeless phenomenon. Yet this psychological and sensory manifestation, which can manifest itself through sight, hearing, smell or touch, remains little known to the general public and health professionals alike. This article is an opportunity for many to discover this phenomenon, also known as necrophany.

Proposing a new history of grief's medicalisation: A critical discourse analysis.

Conceptualisations of grief have transformed significantly in recent decades, from an experience accepted and expressed in community spaces to a diagnosable clinical phenomenon. Narratives of this transformation tend to focus on grief's relationship to major depression, or on recent nosological changes. This paper examines the possibility of a new narrative for medicalisation by grounding in the networks of language and power created around 'grief' through a critical discourse analysis of psy-discipline articles (n = 70) published between 1975 and 1995. Focusing on shifts in definitions of, methods used to approach, and rationales motivating study of the experience, it posits that the psy-disciplines exerted exclusive expertise over grief decades before its creation as a diagnosis. By reconceptualising grief in the terms of psy-specific symptoms and functional performance and by approaching it with the decontextualising and interventionist methods of an increasingly scientific psy-discipline, the psy-community medicalised grief between 1975 and 1995. Identifying neoliberal and other cultural influences shaping this process of medical construction and reconsidering narratives of grief's history mindful of the powers exerted in medicalisation, this paper establishes that these moments played a critical role in the development of the present's grief.

The Sorrow of an Analysand.

The death of an analyst does not imply a socially sanctioned role for their analysand as a mourner. Through an account of experiences following her first analyst's death, the author reflects on the role of writing as a mode of grieving, on the impact of her subsequent analysis, and on the holding function of analytic community.

Was It Just a Dream? Aging and Dreaming the Psychoanalytic Process.

By revisiting the last years of a long psychoanalytic treatment of a female patient, a psychoanalyst reflects on her own development as a clinician and on the changes in her experience of psychoanalytic generativity. An increasing ability to understand patient's shifts between creativity and destructiveness brings about a different understanding of the process of mourning, while the shared aging of the analytic dyad highlights the difficulty of ending an analysis that has become a way of life.

From love to pain: is oxytocin the key to grief complications?

While most adults confronted with the death of a loved one manage to grieve, about 10-20% of individuals develop complicated grief, characterized by persistent distress and impaired social skills, or pathological grief, defined by the onset or decompensation of a psychiatric disorder. Little is known about the biological causes of these grief complications. Recent work suggests that oxytocin, a major neuroendocrine hormone regulating many neurocognitive mechanisms, may be involved in this process. Oxytocin is widely studied and well known for its impact on the mother-child bond and hormonal and brain systems related to attachment and social interactions. In this article, we propose a neurocognitive model of grief complications based on existing data on the role of oxytocin in interpersonal attachment and its impact on brain activity. We suggest that complicated grief is associated with dysfunctional cerebral oxytocinergic signaling and persistent hyperactivation of the nucleus accumbens. This mechanism is involved in limiting the reduction of interpersonal attachment to the deceased during acute phases and in searching for new interpersonal relationships during the recovery phase. We show how the exploration of cerebral oxytocinergic signaling would improve the understanding of physiological grief mechanisms in the general population and could allow the development of new therapeutic perspectives against the complications of grief.

Grief and loss in people living with dementia: a review and metasynthesis of qualitative studies.

OBJECTIVES: This review seeks to synthesise qualitative studies that focus on the experience of grief and loss in people living with dementia. METHODS: Included studies were quality appraised, synthesised and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: 19 studies were selected for inclusion in the final review and metasynthesis, including 486 participants (115 participants living with dementia, 152 family carers, 219 professionals). Five key dimensions of grief in people living with dementia were identified during the analysis process: grieving for the person I used to be, grieving for how others see me, grieving for the person I will become, grieving for those who have died and what helps me with my grief. CONCLUSION: It is evident that people living with dementia can experience grief related to a range of previous, current and anticipated losses. Many of the studies included in this review did not directly include people living with dementia in their research and did not ask participants directly about their experience of grief and loss. As grief is a highly personal and individual experience, further research addressing the experience of grief that directly includes participants living with dementia is required, in order to improve awareness of grief-related needs and to develop and deliver support to meet these needs.

Claiming ecological grief: Why are we not mourning (more and more publicly) for ecological destruction?

Eco-anxiety, grief and despair are increasing, yet these emotions tend to remain private, rarely expressed in public. Why is it important and necessary to grieve for ecological loss? Why are we not-as individuals and societies-coming together to express and share our grief for ecological destruction? I address these questions from three angles. Firstly, I draw on recent literature on ecological grief and prior work on grief for human lives, to argue for the importance and urgency of grieving publicly for ecological loss. Building on this, I identify perceptual, cognitive, affective, ritual and political obstacles to ecological mourning; these obstacles point at critical intersections between emotions, practices, disciplines, public and private realms, which can turn into fruitful venues for further research, debate and action on ecological grief (and its absence). In closing, I propose a set of 'ecological skills' that might help us overcome these obstacles, and lead us to embrace ecological grief and mourning as acts of ethical responsibility and care for the planet.

Mourning in Hamlet: Turning ancestral ghosts into ancestors.

Extracts from Shakespeare's Hamlet are used to show how obstacles to mourning may arise from the persistent demands of melancholic internal objects demanding repair and revenge. It is only with the development of symbolic function as a result of separateness between self and object that reparation becomes possible and ghosts are turned into ancestors.

"I Have Accepted My Father's Death; I was not Sad but Relieved." Adaptive Grief Responses for Bereaved Dementia Family Caregivers: A Scoping Review.

This scoping review explores findings from the psychological and medical literature on the adaptive grieving experiences of bereaved dementia family caregivers and integrates what healthcare professionals can do to support bereaved dementia family caregivers transition into a post-death role. Bereaved dementia family caregivers are particularly susceptible to prolonged grief disorder post-death due to the protracted caregiving demands and progressive course of the illness. The mention of caregiver grief while the person with dementia is living is quite common in the literature; however, limited research focuses on the bereaved dementia family caregiver and the methods they use to grieve adaptively. Three overarching adaptive grieving themes emerged from the review: 1) social health, 2) emotional and spiritual fitness, and 3) reclaiming activities. Given the growing prevalence of bereaved family dementia caregivers, understanding how they might most adaptively grieve and experience the greatest possible well-being should be a top focus for research.

The role of intensive care unit diaries in the grieving process: A monocentric qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The growing importance of psychological recovery for patients and their families following intensive care unit (ICU) experiences in recent years cannot be overemphasized. The ICU diary is used to aid patients in reducing the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. The usefulness of maintaining a diary during the grieving process has not yet been thoroughly investigated. AIM: To investigate the role of ICU diaries in the grief process experienced by family members of a person who died in the intensive care unit. STUDY DESIGN: Nine family members of seven deceased ICU patients with an ICU diary were contacted and interviewed by phone using a semi-structured interview. A qualitative data analysis was performed using thematic synthesis. SETTING: Italian general intensive care unit. FINDINGS: Interviewed family members felt that the diary helped them during the grieving process. The return of diaries was desired by family members for support and to remember one's loved one. The diary helped them process their losses in various ways, including signs of evidence of care, emotional involvement, consideration, and coping with grief. Four main themes emerged from the analysis: writing the diary, reading the diary, talking about the diary, and the diary during the grieving process. CONCLUSIONS: The overall perception of the ICU diary was positive. The diary mostly helped relatives to "give back something of what we lost". This study also affirms the positive link between ICU diaries and bereavement in Italian ICU. Further studies are required to confirm the usefulness of this tool in the grieving process. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The ICU diary can help patients' family members understand what happened to their loved one and play an important role in the grieving process. The diary served as a valuable source of information that aided in providing bereavement support to the family by helping them to gain a rational and emotional understanding of the patient's death.

The End of Life Accompanied by COVID-19: A Qualitative Study on Changes in Behavior and Stigmatization of the Grieving Families in Peru (Part II).

The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has led to changes in every aspect of life and death. In Peru, where the longest quarantine has occurred with suboptimal results, the rituals have been turned around, impacting the relatives in multiple aspects. Here, we used a qualitative approach to analyze unresolved grief, hygiene changes, and stigma through semi-structured, online (Google Meet) interviews with 15 participants aged 20-72, who had lost family members to COVID-19. The recorded and transcribed interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Most participants had unresolved grief due to the blocking of funeral rituals, which could predispose them to prolonged mourning. After the loss of relatives, hygiene measures will be improved to avoid infections and new deaths in every family, while most participants felt no stigma in their milieu, since their relatives accompanied them during the funeral, supporting them from afar. It is important that interventions are implemented to prevent the progression of grief by providing mental health opportunities for the bereaved.

Distender o tempo e alinhavar o cuidado: o bordado inventado e a tecnologia da palavra / Stretching time and basting care: the invented embroidery and the word technology / Estirar el tiempo y hilvanar el cuidado: elbordado inventado y la tecnología de palabra

O projeto de pesquisa-intervenção As narrativas ficcionais e o cuidado à dor crônica atuou no Setor de Dor e Cuidados Paliativos de um hospital público, oferecendo-se como coadjuvante do cuidado em saúde. O Ateliê Jardim de Histórias foi um de seus dispositivos e propôs o bordado inventado como linhas de sustentação para um fazer compartilhado. No contexto latinoamericano, o bordar remete à transmissão transgeracional e a práticas políticas e processos de luta e luto no laço social. Este artigo propõe recuperar a história do bordado para além da perspectiva colonial e, a partir disso, a-bordar essa experiência da pesquisa-intervenção no hospital e suas possibilidades. Entende-se que o bordado inventado ressalta a dimensão de improviso e de criatividade dessa prática enquanto um suporte afetivo para a tessitura de narrativas, a partir da disposição de estar com o outro em torno de um fazer sem prescrições. (AU)

The research-intervention project Fictional narratives and chronic pain careacted in the Sector of Pain and Palliative Care of a public hospital, offering an adjunct to health care. The Garden of Stories Atelierwas one of its devices, which proposed the invented embroidery as threads of support for a shared work. In Latin America, embroidery refers to transgenerational transmission, and to political practices and processes of struggle and mourning in the social bond. This article aims to retrieve the history of embroidery beyond the colonial perspective and, from there, to approach this experience of research-intervention in the hospital and its possibilities. The invented embroidery is thought to emphasize the dimension of improvisation and creativity of this practice, as an affective support for the weaving of narratives, from the willingness to be together around an activity without prescriptions. (AU)

El proyecto de investigación-intervención Narrativas ficcionales y el cuidado al dolor crónicofuncionó en el Sector de Dolor y Cuidados Paliativos de un hospital público, ofreciéndose como complemento al cuidado en salud. El Taller Jardín de Historiasfue uno de sus dispositivos y propuso el bordado inventado como líneas de apoyo para una acción compartida. En latinoamerica, el bordado remite a la transmisión transgeneracional y a prácticas políticas y procesos de lucha y luto en el lazo social. Este artículo se propone recuperar la historia del bordado más allá de la perspectiva colonial y, desde allí, abordar esta experiencia de investigación-intervención en el hospital y sus posibilidades. Se entiende que el bordado inventado enfatiza la dimensión deimprovisación y creatividad de esta práctica como soporte afectivo para el tejido de narrativas, desde la voluntad de estar con el otro en torno a un hacer sin recetas. (AU)

Connective Mourning: The Case of Mourning and Memorialization Practices on X.

This study offers a conceptual framework of connective mourning. The case of mourning and memorialization practices on X. The study demonstrates the crucially different memorialization, and mourning practices and the various resulting parasocial practices and dynamics that they enable. Using the mourning and memorialization of Queen Elizabeth II as a case study, the study point to an emerging practice where through high centrality and density of reciprocity, and low modularity, mourners on X stimulate commonality via decentralized and loose networks that allow for solidarity building during crisis such as mourning. On the Queen specifically, the study grouped those that posted about her death into four categories: the Grievers, the Lauders, the Accusers, and the Defenders. This study concludes that when collective mourning occurs, individuals have more reciprocal relationships on a dyadic level which decreases modularity of the network.

Existential Matters and Quality of Dying: A Model of Maturation Processes.

Background: How people face mortality is a crucial matter for medicine. Yet, there is not a coherent and comprehensive understanding of how people can process the experience such that it is not traumatic. Methods: This article offers a "logic model" of how existential maturation occurs, using analogies from cell biology to explain the process. Results: This model depicts 10 mechanisms that together deal with mortality-salient events. Collectively, they are termed the existential function, which is seen as an innate, ever-evolving, integral part of the mind. An operational boundary selectively manages how realities are taken in. Processing is initiated with other essential people, ushering in reiterative steps of listening, finding, exploring, making meaning, and adjusting. The result is adaptive, integrated, mortality-acknowledging dispositions of mind. The process allows quality of life at the end of life and healthy mourning; impediments to it make for existential suffering and complicated grief. Conclusions: This conceptual model describes how people can face mortality. Its merit depends on its source in human experience, its explanatory power, its ability to guide people as they face mortality, and its ability to stimulate productive perspectives. It is therefore offered as an invitation for discussion, research, revision, and evolution.

Investigating the mediating influence of distress tolerance on the relationship between existential thinking, sense of coherence, and the severity of mourning among families who lost a loved one to COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

Background and Aims: The objective of the current study was to examine how distress tolerance functions as a mediator in the relationship between existential thinking, sense of coherence, and the severity of mourning experienced by families who have lost a loved one to COVID-19. Methods: The present study employed a descriptive correlational research design, targeting family members of those who passed away due to COVID-19 in the city of Mianeh in 2022. A sample of 160 individuals was selected for statistical analysis. The research instruments used in this study consisted of Flensberg's sense of coherence questionnaire (2006), Simmons and Gaher's emotional distress tolerance questionnaire (2005), Sugbart and Scott's grief experience questionnaire (1989), and Branton Scherer's existential thinking questionnaire (2006). The collected data were analyzed using path analysis, as well as SPSS and Amos software. Results: The findings of the study revealed a significant correlation coefficient between existential thinking (r = 0.465), sense of coherence (r = 0.401), and distress tolerance (r = 0.521) with the severity of mourning experienced by families who lost a loved one to COVID-19. Moreover, the results indicated a positive and significant relationship (p > 0.01) between distress tolerance and sense of coherence (r = 0.126), as well as between distress tolerance and existential thinking (r = 0.059) among the bereaved families. However, the bootstrap test results suggested that distress tolerance did not mediate the relationship between sense of coherence and the severity of mourning in the families of COVID-19 victims. Conclusion: Consistent with prior research, the current study's findings indicated that both existential thinking and sense of coherence had a direct impact on the severity of mourning experienced by families who lost a loved one to COVID-19. Additionally, the results revealed that the influence of existential thinking on the severity of mourning was mediated indirectly by increasing distress tolerance.

Factors Associated with Complicated Grief Following a Railway Tragedy.

On July 6, 2013, a train with 72 crude oil tank cars derailed in the heart of Lac-Mégantic, a small municipality of 6,000 inhabitants located in Québec (Canada). This tragedy killed 47 people. Technological disasters are rarely studied in bereavement research, and train derailments even less. The goal of this article is to increase our understanding of the bereavement consequences of technological disasters. Specifically, we aim to identify the factors that lead to the experience complicated grief and distinguish from the protective factors. A representative population-based survey was conducted among 268 bereaved people, three and a half years after the train accident. Of these, 71 people (26.5%) experienced complicated grief. People with complicated grief (CG) differ significantly from those without CG in terms of psychological health, perception of physical health, alcohol use and medication, as well as social and professional relationships. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis identified four predictive factors for CG: level of exposure to the disaster, having a negative perception of the event, as well as having a paid job and low-income increase the risk of CG. The importance of having health and social practitioners pay attention to these factors of CG are discussed along with future directions for research.

Teatro popular y duelo colectivo en Bojayá (Chocó-Colombia)

El valor del arte popular, particularmente del teatro, es relevante en los procesos de elaboración del duelo colectivo de comunidades afectadas por el conflicto armado colombiano, en especial los derivados de la masacre del 2002 en Bojayá. Lo primero que permite comprender es que las diversas manifestaciones de la violencia vividas en el territorio, en especial la masacre y el desplazamiento, tuvieron un impacto disruptivo que desestructuró profundamente la vida cotidiana, la identidad y el mundo de supuestos de los habitantes. En concreto, causó pérdidas múltiples de orden material y simbólico, cuyos duelos han sido muy complejos por las dinámicas de la guerra colombiana que impidieron los rituales funerarios tradicionales para despedir a sus más de ochenta muertos y fragmentó a la comunidad dispersándola en otros municipios.

The value of popular art, particularly theater, is relevant in the processes of elaboration of collective mourning of communities affected by the Colombian armed conflict, especially those derived from the 2002 massacre in Bojayá. The first idea to understand is that the various manifestations of violence experienced in the territory, especially the massacre and displacement, had a disruptive impact that profoundly deconstructed the daily life, identity, and the world of assumptions of the inhabitants. Specifically, it caused multiple losses of material and symbolic order, whose mourning has been very complex due to the dynamics of the Colombian war that prevented the traditional funeral rituals to say goodbye to the more than eighty dead and fragmented the community, by dispersing it in other municipalities.

Commemoration and Emotional Sustenance: A Text Analysis of Students' Motivations Behind Online Mourning of Dr Li Wenliang.

As one of the first doctors issued a protective warning to the public, Dr. Li Wenliang was known as "whistleblower" of COVID-19 pandemic. After his death of COVID-19, students entered to his Sina Weibo to display their condolences and sorrow. We conduct text analysis and sentiment classification to investigate the motivation behind online mourning for Dr. Li among students on Sina Weibo. Our results indicate that, a) there always more than one motivation behind online mourning exists in each time period. b) continuing connection and semi-interaction with the deceased is the main motivation when students mourn online. c) there exists positive correlation between the influence of the deceased and the motivation--sharing information with the community of fans and creating social support in a time of loss and social support. d) the motivation--honoring the dead and expressing sadness and resentment can gradually lose over time.

The Play of Mourning.

Playing is a form of responsiveness that involves a shift from more formal interpretation about defense, unconscious fantasy, or transference to one that employs humor or irony regarding the content of fantasy or poses a more direct confrontation between internal fantasy and external reality. Playing is differentiated from more formal interpretation by the analytic couple's intensity of affective expression, the idiomatic language used to express affect or ideas, or the analyst's more personally revealing reaction to the patient's recruitment of him as an internal object. Two clinical vignettes show how play emphasizes experiences of loss and waste that have been enacted in the patient's life and often in transference-countertransference engagement. Through newly discovered forms of play, these processes are occurring now in real time between patient and analyst and less through frozen memorialization of what never was.

1. Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Absent Bodies, Inner Presences: 1. Victims of Enforced Disappearances: Absent Bodies, Inner Presences1.

Enforced disappearance represents the quintessence of human rights violations with a strong psychological component. Bodies vanishing have a deterrent effect by terrorizing and paralyzing the entire society. However, the absence of those bodies is overly present in the inner experience of the families of the disappeared, who are victims in their turn. A state of severe psychological deterioration affects the relatives of the disappeared: depression, anxiety, powerlessness, guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder, inability to mourn, even suicide are the consequences of the unbearable uncertainty about the fate of the loved one. But the disappeared persons, notwithstanding the absence of their bodies, continue to be more present than ever in the inner experience of those who have loved them. For the families of the disappeared, to regain psychological equilibrium is a fine balance between the need to remember and the necessity to forget. The author affirms that, at a social and political level, to cultivate a collective memory of enforced disappearance is an ethical duty which validates the actual occurrence of the atrocities, helps prevent repetition and alleviates the transgenerational transmission of trauma.

Les disparitions forcées représentent la quintessence des violations des droits humains avec une forte composante psychologique. Les corps que l'on ne retrouve pas sont un moyen de dissuasion qui opère en terrorisant et paralysant la société toute entière. L'absence de ces corps est excessivement présente dans l'expérience intérieure des familles de ces disparus ; elles deviennent des victimes à leur tour. Un état de détérioration psychologique aigu affecte les membres de la famille du disparu : dépression, angoisse, sentiment d'impuissance, culpabilité, syndrome post-traumatique, incapacité à faire le deuil, et même le suicide sont les conséquences de l'insupportable incertitude concernant le destin de la personne aimée. Les personnes disparues, du fait de l'absence de leur dépouille, continuent d'être plus que jamais présentes dans l'expérience intérieure de ceux qui les ont aimées. Pour les familles des disparus, retrouver une stabilité psychologique se trouve dans un équilibre délicat entre le besoin de se souvenir et la nécessité d'oublier. L'auteur soutient qu'au niveau social et politique, cultiver une mémoire collective des disparitions forcées est un devoir éthique qui confirme que des atrocités ont bien eu lieu, qui aide à en prévenir la répétition et qui allège la transmission transgénérationnelle du traumatisme.

La desaparición forzada representa la quintaesencia de las violaciones de derechos humanos con un fuerte componente psicológico. La desaparición de cuerpos tiene un efecto disuasorio al aterrorizar y paralizar a toda la sociedad. Sin embargo, la ausencia de esos cuerpos está excesivamente presente en la experiencia interior de las familias de los desaparecidos, que son víctimas a su vez. Un estado de grave deterioro psicológico afecta a los familiares de los desaparecidos: depresión, ansiedad, impotencia, culpabilidad, trastorno de estrés postraumático, incapacidad para el duelo, incluso suicidio son las consecuencias de la insoportable incertidumbre sobre la suerte del ser querido. Pero las personas desaparecidas, a pesar de la ausencia de sus cuerpos, siguen estando más presentes que nunca en la experiencia interior de quienes las han amado. Para las familias de los desaparecidos, recuperar el equilibrio psicológico es un delicado equilibrio entre la necesidad de recordar y la necesidad de olvidar. La autora afirma que, a nivel social y político, cultivar una memoria colectiva de la desaparición forzada es un deber ético que valida la ocurrencia real de las atrocidades, ayuda a prevenir su repetición y alivia la transmisión transgeneracional del trauma.