ANATOMY OF GRIEF

Grief happens to everyone. Universal and enveloping, grief cannot be ignored or denied. Readers will learn what grief is like after a loved one dies - how language and clarity of thought become elusive, why life feels empty, why grief surges and ebbs so persistently, and why the bereaved cry. Resting on a scientific foundation, this literary book shows the bereaved how to move through the grieving process and how understanding grief in deeper, more multidimensional ways can help quell this sorrow and allow life to be lived again with joy. This original new book by psychologist Dorothy P. Holinger uses humanistic and physiological approaches to describe grief's impact on the bereaved. Taking examples from literature, music, poetry, paleoarchaeology, personal experience, memoirs, and patient narratives, Holinger describes what happens in the brain, the heart, and the body of the bereaved. Wise, moving and best of all extraordinarily helpful, she draws on her expertise in brain research and clinical work with grieving patients and urges us not to resist society's pressure to "get over it" on some imposed timetable . 328 pages.