We will take up the major tenets of this theory and explore how these illumine loss and bereavement. Following some of Silvan Tomkins' and Donald Nathanson's ideas, I will lecture on the biology and biography of affects with special attention to the affect of distress-anguish. I will also raise the themes of empathy, the contagion of emotions and the implications for pastoral caregivers and counselors. I will lecture on the familial context of loss. Loss traumatizes individuals and families.
Loss never occurs just to an individual in isolation.
Loss always happens in a context, usually the context of the family, and decisively affects that context. In order to understand a loss we have to know and assess the impact of the loss upon the whole family as well as the individuals in it. According to some scholars like John Bowlby, bereavement has an identifiable and distinctive anatomy. Others like J. William Worden contend that bereavement challenges us with tasks to confront and manage. We will question to what extent our experiences of loss fit these frameworks and which one is the most compelling and why.