Chapter 9

SURVIVORS: Understanding Experience of Loss
Everyone survives in one way or another since each person has experienced loss in various ways such as losing a loved one, losing one’s job, or loss of a treasured relationship. All these instances make the people who go through such events to survive through them. Any survivor is bound to experience moments of grief and mourning so that he or she can deal with the loss that has occurred.
Bereavement, grief, and mourning are usually part of experiencing and coping with loss as emphasized in the article. The survivor has to go through this at some point in life. When a person is bereaved, the experience is identical to the feeling of being robbed of something that was part of your life. According to Dennis Klass, bereavement is a human characteristic, and it directly affects our relationships with the deceased. Grief is the reaction that a person exhibits in the event of a loss. It is expressed through multiple behaviors that are interconnected to the feelings of the bereaved. A grieving survivor may experience moments of disbelief, sadness, self-pity, or anger. Mourning is a process that is natural and is governed by social and cultural norms. For instance, when mourning for a prominent person in a nation, the flag is half-mast like it happened in 30-day mourning for George Washington in America. In some communities, mourners wear black clothing.
Interestingly, the chapter proposes different theories and perspectives that try to guide the survivors on how they can cope with the loss of any form.

Rando in his Grief-work perspective says that the bereaved has to detach from the lost object or person to cope with the loss. According to William Worden, mourning involves tasks like accepting reality, working through the pain, and adjusting and moving on with life. Therefore, the survivor has to look for ways to deal with the loss and adjust to living a normal life. It is also important to note that support for the bereaved is important for the recovering of a normal life of any survivor.