Recent research supports the theoretical premise that healthy forms of bereavement include
meaning making as a coping response to loss as well as a move away from Freud’s original
postulation regarding the importance of decathexis as necessary to a healthy resolution of
grief. However, traumatic bereavement produces particular kinds of difficulties in meaningmaking
and the possible resolution of this kind of loss. The study explored responses in relation
to the traumatic loss of a child through homicide in a sample of 7 parents (2 couples, 3
mothers) who were identified through the The Compassionate Friends (TCF) chapter in
Highlands North, Johannesburg and who volunteered to take part in the study. Semi structured
interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and subjected to an interpretive thematic
content analysis. The thematic content analysis revealed that meaning making responses in
relation to the loss of a child through homicide, are complex and that somewhat unexpectedly,
parents experienced expectations from society and others to engage in particular kinds of
meaning-making as counterproductive and alienating. Issues concerning the simultaneous
introjection of and de-cathexis from the lost child also proved enlightening. Meaning-making
also involves both some degree of trauma resolution and the recognition of what the loss of the
significant other entails. The research also explored the choices and decisions that parents
reported as being important in response to the traumatic loss of their child, and therefore
suggests some useful pointers for those who encounter traumatically bereaved individuals in
the course of their work.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12602 |
| Date | 26 March 2013 |
| Creators | Chan, Angeline Michell |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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