In this work, Volkan presented his views on grief by combining his own experiences of grief with clinical data. to mourn; He defined it as an agreement that we make in order to be able to harmonize between our inner world and reality. He explained how grief was shaped and included Bowby and Parkes’ stages of grief in his book. But he found the stages of grief suggested by Freud close to him and divided the grief into 2 stages.
He had the opportunity to show the denial, division, bargaining, distress and anger experienced in Stage 1, “Sorrow in a Crisis”, in his own mourning period and in the experiences of his patients. He talked about the important effect of the phenomenon he defined as “Psychic Spouse” on grieving and explained this according to the situation in age with the phenomenon of object permanence. In the 2nd stage; once he accepted the reality of death, he defined the period of “reconciliation” of the relationship with the deceased as begins. He classified grief into uncomplicated grief and complicated grief.
Effective grief; He explained that it requires being able to endure the idea of loss and stated that grief cannot be resolved easily in dependent relationships because the person is loaded with ambivalence and anger. He put the phenomenon of “Review”, which we see in many of his books, an important place in the mourning process. Not being able to grieve; He suggested that it stems from an unresolved loss in childhood. He showed the unhealthy and healthy ones of the identifications with the disappeared with their clinical appearances. He examined grief not only as a situation experienced by the individual, but also as a situation experienced by the family.
He touched upon the symbols of mourning in dreams and enriched our understanding of the mourning process with the term “Connection Object”. He explained the age-varying bereavement reactions, its effects on the oedipal state, and the bereavement in adolescence.
He explained the “Resurrection Therapy”, which he developed using the ideas of behaviorists, and in the last chapter, he completed his book with the connection between grief and creativity and the end of an immigrant’s grief.
