Communities of feeling: The culture of bereaved parents

Abstract

The death of an offspring presents parents and other family members with experiences which may isolate them from some of the social relations with which they were previously involved. Published research indicates substantial differences in the ways in which many men and women cope with grief and provides evidence of isolation within the marital relationship itself. This paper reports on research into the experiences of parents whose children have died and considers ways in which personal grief may serve both to isolate individual parents from previous social networks, and to drive them towards alternative relations in which the significance of their loss may be acknowledged, and its meanings explored. Drawing on notions of community and of the sentiments which underpin social networks (Durkheim, 1964; Douglas & Calvez, 1990; Crow & Allan, 1994), it is suggested that a bereaved parent culture may offer both emotional release and support in a search for meaning.