This is a life story about a man, Victor, and his life. He was born into a family of travellers, this has been a very important part of his upbringing, socializing and how society has viewed him. The purpose of this essay is to discuss how a society's values, and the changes in these values, are manifested in a life story. A person’s identity is created in the situations one is in and in the relationships with ones social contacts. A person has not just one, but several different identities that coexist and are highlighted depending on the situations in which we find ourselves. I will look for traces of such identity formation in Viktor's life story. The environments vary continuously in the story as Viktor has moved often. Friends and wives also vary, but the family and relatives are always available. In Viktor's life, there is rootlessness and a feeling of being rejected or treated with hostility. It is only when Victor falls ill that community and the health care give him the respect that everyone deserves. I wonder if these changes are linked to the fact that Viktor is traveller or if there are other reasons for them?

The overall aim of this thesis was to increase our understanding and knowledge of patients’ experiences of living with multiple sclerosis (MS). A mixed-method design was used, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. Thirty-one immunologically treated MS patients were randomly selected and matched with patients without immunological treatment. Matching criteria were gender, impairment, time since diagnosis and age. One patient dropped out and therefore the final sample consisted of 61 patients. All 61 were interviewed (Studies I, III and IV) and completed the 36-item Short Form health survey questionnaire (SF-36), the Subjective estimation of Quality of Life questionnaire (SQoL), the Self-reported Impairment Check-list (SIC) (Study II) and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale questionnaire (MADRS) (Study III). The interviews were subjected to content analysis. Initial symptoms and being diagnosed with MS were described in terms of becoming vulnerable and remaining in that vulnerability long after the diagnosis. Eventually the patients were able to manage this emotional distress and acquired strength in their illness situation (Study I). In the matched analysis, 29 pairs of patients were included after internal drop-out. There were no statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups. Concerning the total group of 61 patients, the self-reported impairment check-list showed that they had various problems of impairment, most evident in balance and walking. The score on health-related quality of life (SF-36) was reduced, disclosing a negative influence on vitality, physical role and function. However, subjective quality of life (SQoL) was not reduced, showing that the patients estimated their well-being to be quite unaffected (Study II). Thirty-eight of the 61 patients (62%) experienced chronic sorrow (Study III). The group were not depressed in general, only four having mild symptoms of depression, revealing that chronic sorrow is a particular form of emotional distress in MS. Chronic sorrow was experienced in terms of loss of hope, loss of control over the body and loss of integrity and dignity. When the patients could not adequately manage their sorrow and lacked support, they were struggling with their vulnerability. In the successful management of MS, losses and emotional distress are managed in such a way as to enhance personal growth, appreciation and trust in life. The theoretical model of chronic sorrow facilitated the sorting of the empirical data and the linking of these data to theory, showing the usefulness of the model (Study IV).

The study of the loss of a sibling in mainstream bereavement literature has been largely neglected in psychology. This sentiment has often, and still continues, to be expressed by those outside and within the psychological field. The focus in the childhood bereavement literature has been on the loss of a parent and, in adulthood, on the loss of a child or of a spouse. Despite the growing interest in sibling loss in more recent times (since the 1980s), more specifically in childhood and adolescent sibling loss, in reality bereaved siblings remain ‘forgotten’ and even marginalised. The present study concerned the experience of the loss of a brother or sister in young adulthood, an area that has been largely neglected. The phenomenon was explored using a qualitative approach and employing the empirical phenomenological psychological research method as articulated by Amedeo Giorgi. In-depth interviews with three research participants who were asked to describe their experience of the loss of their sibling were used to gather the data. The emphasis was on discovery, on allowing the siblings to speak for themselves by posing an open-ended question rather than focusing on isolated aspects of the loss experience. The general psychological structure revealed that the experience of the loss of a brother or sister evolves over time and cannot meaningfully be understood as an event that can be contained within a specified moment in time. The experience is a fundamentally relational and paradoxical phenomenon and is reflective of the context in which it occurs. With the loss, the sibling's whole world changes in a very radical way. It is a triple loss: the loss of the brother or sister, the loss of the family unit and the 'loss' of the parents as the siblings had known them. Initially bereaved siblings put aside their grief in an attempt to protect parents and significant others. A conspiracy of silence evolves which conceals their pain and as they continue with life as ‘normal’ there is a deceptive belief of ‘coping well’, of personal stability. Yet internally the bereaved sibling struggles with intense emotions and a lonely struggle ensues. The lack of acknowledgement of the sibling’s grief by others compounds the sense of isolation and alienation and he/she begins to feel like an “implicated alien”, a participant-spectator; part-of and also apart-from the grief situation. Finding a safe space to grieve is critical to bereaved siblings and when this is possible they are able to let go of their deep emotions and grieve the loss of their brother or sister. The loss of a sibling is the experience of losing various parts of the self and needing to reclaim and reintegrate self. The main contribution of this study can be described as providing insights concerning the complex, multi-layered and multi-dimensional process of this loss experience to clinicians and others who care for bereaved siblings. Where the extant psychoanalytic and object relations literature is willing to concede that a sibling relationship exists, screened behind parental relationships, the present study reveals that siblings have a unique relationship of their own and that the loss of this relationship demands radical mourning. This study also reveals that death in the family is a fundamentally relational experience. The loss of a sibling and the loss of a child frequently overlap and tumble into each other and it is difficult to know for whom the sibling is grieving at any particular moment. Thus, grief over the loss of a brother or sister cannot be reduced to a purely intra-psychic or psycho-social process. The fact that sibling grief is not visible, does not mean that it does not exist. Clinicians and caregivers need to be aware of the existential chaos, the trauma, and the ambiguous and paradoxical nature of the sorrow experienced by a sibling-who-loses-a-sibling. Future research into the loss of a brother or sister beyond young and middle adulthood, an area that has also largely been neglected, would constitute an important contribution to the psychology of siblings and of sibling loss/bereavement throughout the life cycle. Also significant would be the exploration of what happens in the sibling group following the loss of one of their members. / Thesis (PhD (Psychotherapy))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

Studiens syfte är att undersöka vad forskningen säger om äldre individers reaktioner och behov av stöd vid förlust av livskamrat. Som metod används en allmän litteraturöversikt. Som teori används Aaron Antonovskys begrepp KASAM, känsla av sammanhang.  Individer som är 65 år och äldre tillhör en växande grupp i samhället och enligt beräkningar kommer 25 procent av den svenska befolkningen inom kort att vara över 65 år. 20 procent av alla äldre individer lever med någon form av psykisk ohälsa och reducerad livskvalité som följd av exempelvis närståendes död, oönskad ensamhet och/eller problem med den fysiska hälsan. Med denna allmänna litteraturöversikt tar jag ett samlat grepp av området genom att undersöka, analysera och redogöra för vad forskningen säger om äldre individers reaktioner och behov av stöd vid förlust av livskamrat. Ålderdomen är den tid i livet då individen upplever flest förluster. Trots detta faktum är det andra åldersgrupper än äldre som prioriteras inom sorgestöd. En livskamrats död anses vara en av de mest stressfulla livsövergångarna i en människas liv.Hur den äldre individen reagerar och hanterar förlusten är avhängigt av många faktorer, exempelvis ekonomiska och sociala. Vissa äldre tar sig igenom sorgeprocessen andra ”fastnar” i sin sorg så pass allvarligt att de behöver hjälp att ta sig vidare. Några går till och med stärkta ur detta. Antonovsky (2005) menar att huruvida denna stressor blir sjukdom, hälsa eller något däremellan beror på hur pass framgångsrik hanteringenav denna spänning är. Just detta är självakärnan i studiens resultat gällande äldre individers reaktioner vid förlust av livskamrat.I de fall då dödsfallet föregåtts av en sjukdomsperiod kan den efterlevande även uppleva en känsla av lättnad,minskad stressoch färredepressiva symtomdå hen inte behöver se sin partner lida längre. Denna aspekt visar en del av den komplexiteten som all sorg består av. Kontakten med familj, vänner och andra närstående har en mycket positiv inverkan på den nyblivna änklingen/änkan då den mildrar de negativa reaktioner som följer med en förlust samt stödjer den äldre individen på dennes väg genom sorg, bearbetning och nyorientering. De positiva följderna av att i ett tryggt sammanhang få möjlighet att dela sina upplevelser med andra, bli mött och bekräftad i sin sorg, såväl av närstående som personer som den sörjande möter i stödinsatser inom ramen för socialt arbete är själva essenseni studiens resultat gällande äldre individers behov av stöd vid förlust av livskamrat. / The purpose of this study is to examine what research says about the reactions and the needs of the elderly for support when losing their life companion. The method used is a general literary overview and the theory is Aaron Antonovsky´s term sense of coherence, SOC. Individuals of 65 years and older are an increasing part of the population. According to calculations, the group of people over the age of 65 will soon be 25 per cent of the Swedish population. 20 per cent of the elderly suffer from some kind of mental health issue and decreased quality of life, due to the death of a close relative, unwanted loneliness and/or physical health issues. With this general literary overview I am giving an overall picture of the topic through examining, analysing and explaining the research results on the reactions and needs of the elderly for support when losing their life companion. When people are of old age, that is the time of life when they suffer from most losses. Despite this fact, other age groups are prioritized to receive grief support. The death of a life companion is considered one of the most stressful life transitions. How an elderly person reacts and copes with the loss, depends on several factors, including economic and social.Some of the elderly manage to go through the process of grieving, whilst others get stuck in their grief so severely that they need help to be able to move forward in life. Some even grow stronger from the experience. Antonovsky (2005) claims that whether this stress factor transforms into illness, health or something in between, depends on how successful the person is in coping with this tension. Exactly this is the very essence of the result of this study regarding the elderly´s reactions when losing a life companion. In those cases when death has been preceded by a period of illness, the life partner can even experience relief, decreased stress levels and less symptoms of depression, as they no longer need to witness their partner´s suffering.This aspect makes part of the complexity of all grief visible. Being in contact with family, friends and others who are close has a very positive influence on the widower/widow, as it mitigates the negative reactions associated with bereavement and supports the elderly on their path through grief, processing and reorientation. The positive effects of being able to share their experiences with others in a safe context, being met in their grief, both by family and others within social work support groups, this is the very essence of the result of this study regarding the elderly´s need for support when losing a life companion.

I denna uppsats undersöks hur sorg skapas och uttrycks i diktsamlingarna Det här är hjärtat av Bodil Malmsten och Nattliga samtal av Elisabeth Rynell. Utifrån en teori om att känslor skapas i en kontakt mellan subjekt och objekt framgår det i undersökningen att diktjagen i respektive diktsamling uttrycker och hanterar sorgen på olika sätt. Diktjaget i Det här är hjärtat är statiskt och kommer aldrig ur sorgen medan diktjaget i Nattliga samtal är dynamiskt och går vidare ur sorgen. / This essay examines how grief is created and expressed in the poetry collections Det här är hjärtat by Bodil Malmsten and Nattliga samtal by Elisabeth Rynell. Based on a theory that emotions are created in a contact between subject and object, it appears in the survey that narrator in each collection of poems expressing and handles grief differently. The narrator in Det här är hjärtat is static and will never come out of grief while the narrator in Nattliga samtal is dynamic and moves on from sorrow.

Dissertation is focused on widowhood of old women living in Czech Republic. The work shows specifics of old age especially flexibility to changes, quality and life meaningfulness in old age, covers marriage in old age and describes dealing with losses of partner in old age. It presents theme of dealing with losses in old age, describes processes and kinds of grief, mourning, rites and consultancy for the bereaved. Special attention is paid to handicapped old women status and risks related to it which could jeopardize them. Dissertation also delimits the term of widowhood and focuses on its specifics. Attention is paid to the other reasons of loneliness which are not related to widowhood. Theoretical chapters are supplemented with information from six detailed conversations with widows and also presents the author's own experience which she obtained from practice in retirement homes and from her presence in the voluntary organization "Kavárnička dříve narozených".

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The diploma thesis discusses the relationship between humanism and hedonism. However, its main objective is not to explain the terms in their summarized historical relatedness but to point out their internal coherence. The fundamental issue the thesis deals with is the fact that sentient beings suffer from sorrow. Enumerating the reasons why it is important to search for a solution would be a waste of our reader's time. It is necessary to understand that we don't expect empirical science to solve the problem since - despite the enthusiasm significant for this modern period - has not introduced any relief from sorrow. Here comes the opportunity for philosophy and, eventually, ethics. In its first part the thesis maps out the context of humanism and hedonism, studies their apparent as well as hidden nature, and lays the conceivable foundations of humanistic hedonism. The following section suggests a set of particular steps. Adhering to these instructions makes it possible to experience delight and to eliminate sorrow.

This MA thesis deals with the text analysis of the Song of Roland. The text analysis focuses in detail on the formal, content, narrative and symbolic aspects of the Song of Roland. All those features are in the context of the literary and historical frame. The Song of Roland is one of the oldest literary pieces of French literature. It is the most famous heroic song belonging to the "Chanson de geste" and it was created in the 11th century. The main characters of the heroic poem are Charles the great, his nephew Roland, loyal friend Olivier, traitor Galeon and pagan king Marsil. The Song of Roland explores not only the family and friend relations, but the important topics are also betrayal and desire for fortune and glory. The Song deals with the matter of faith being asserted in the way which is typical for the middle ages. The story, which takes part in Spain, where the French have been besieging the pagan fort of Zaragoza for seven years, is very interesting from the historical aspects, but were more interested in the narrative - textual aspects, in which we tried to explore the relationships between the narrators. We focused on individual speeches, who speaks to whom and in which way. We asked ourselves three questions, which we have gradually answered. For the need of an analysis of individual speech...