Susan Anderson (psychotherapist)
While Kübler-Ross, Anderson, and others have attempted to define discrete stages of grief, such as an initial period of numbness leading to depression and finally to reorganization and recovery, most modern grief specialists recognize the variations and fluidity of grief experiences, that differ considerably in intensity and length among cultural groups and from person to person. No grief stage theory has been able to account for how people cope with loss, why they experience varying degrees and types of distress at different times, and how or when they adjust to a life without their loved one over time.
Grief (novel)
The biggest theme in the story is one about the death of a family member. The narrator's mother is the single reason why he takes a visit to Washington D.C. in order to try to work through the grief of losing his mother. Being the sole caretaker of his mother, he feels as though he “kept her alive longer than she wanted to be” because of the fact that “families often hang on to [them] because they cannot let them go” (122). Grief, in this sense, is an overwhelming feeling of loss and despair, because the depression one goes through by not having someone they love around anymore as well the inability to accept death as a natural course of life. In order to work through his despair, the narrator finds ways in order to lessen the pain and to transfer some of the guilt he is feeling. He turns to roaming around Washington D.C. and conversing with his friend, Frank that “there are a lot of people who never get over certain things” like grief for example. “The past becomes their home. The dead become more real to them than the living – because there are more of the dead. They miss the dead, and when that happens, life stops” (21). This explanation perfects the theme of death of a family member. It helps to describe what happens when grief overpowers one's emotions and the reasons why one cannot overcome the death of a person.