Families Making Sense of Death

Abstract

Families Making Sense of Death. Janice Winchester Nadeau. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 1998. 289 pp. ISBN 0-7619-0265-1. $25.95 paper. Families Making Sense of Death is a moving account of how 10 families are making meaning of the death of a loved one. In fact, the focus of the book is specifically on meaning making and how families, rather than individuals, bring about this collective thinking after the death of a member. Studying meaning making after loss in the is a rare enterprise-no other published account had been available to the author at the inception of this project-and Nadeau should be applauded for her pioneering work. Because no prior work exists in this domain, Nadeau used qualitative research methods and interviewed each of the 10 families via a 25-item questionnaire developed for the study. The interview included questions about how the members learned about the death, whether there was unfinished business between the members and the deceased, whether particular ways of thinking about the deceased hindered or helped members, and whether life lessons or life truths have been revealed. The intensive and unstructured interviews were conducted individually and with other members present, and the number of different members present was varied. Sometimes whole households or multiple generations were interviewed in this way. This approach highlights the importance of meaning making at multiple system levels. As part of the interview process, members were asked to mind read what absent members might say or how they might view an issue by using an adaptation of the Milan technique of circular questioning. The interviews were audiotaped, and the book includes verbatim excerpts to illustrate the insights of members. Given that the families were able and willing to participate in the interview process, this is a study of open systems, rather than closed systems. Indeed, many of the participants commented on (or at least became aware of) the importance of the interview as part of their meaning making. The theoretical underpinnings of this qualitative project stem from symbolic interaction and systems theories. Symbolic interaction theory is based on the premise that meanings are socially constructed and that the meanings so constructed determine consequences. Family systems theory emphasizes the changes in structure-that is, the restructuring of roles, rules, and boundaries-following a death. Indeed, members appeared to engage in the process of meaning making via their interactions and discussions with other members. Through family speak, members seemed to co-construct meaning in ordinary conversation and communication by finishing each other's sentences, asking questions, echoing, disagreeing, and interrupting each other. …