The Endless Grief in Waiting: A Qualitative Study of the Relationship between Ambiguous Loss and Anticipatory Mourning amongst the Relatives of Missing Persons in Italy.

Ines Testoni,Michael Alexander Wieser,Chiara Franco,Erika Iacona,Lorenza Palazzo,Adriano Zamperini

doi:10.3390/bs10070110

Ines Testoni, Michael Alexander Wieser + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10070110

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Abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative study aiming to consider the relationship between ambiguous loss and anticipatory mourning amongst relatives of missing people in Italy. Eight people participated in the research, narrating their experiences of losing a beloved person (one found alive, three found dead, and four still missing). Findings suggest the presence of a particular form of ambiguous loss, characterised by traits typical of both prolonged and traumatic grief. These findings describe how families are faced with an emotional vortex related to a never-ending wait, and how the mourning is solved only when the missing person is found dead or alive. The discovery of a corpse is traumatic but it allows mourners to fully recognise their grief. When a person is found, it changes the relationship in a positive way. When neither of these events happen, mourners have two different kinds of reactions: they experience either a prolonged grief or a drive to solve their suffering by helping other people (post-traumatic growth). In this study, it is highlighted how a community can be useful or detrimental in this process, and the importance of psychological and social support to prevent significant clinical outcomes is stressed.

Highlights

The loss of a beloved person, whether due to death or separation, always causes grief
Some exhibit resilient reactions to loss with little psychological distress, whereas others exhibit grief reactions with clinically significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief [1,2]
The absence of the community binds mourners to the conviction that they will be able to solve the problem on their own at all costs, leading them to constantly undertake new research strategies. We find in this profile something similar to what is described as disenfranchised grief, i.e., those situations in which society does not know how to recognise the suffering of the sorrowful because it cannot give meaning to particular forms of loss [39,40]

Summary

Introduction

The loss of a beloved person, whether due to death or separation, always causes grief. Grief is a natural reaction to loss, though its symptoms vary across individuals. Some exhibit resilient reactions to loss with little psychological distress, whereas others exhibit grief reactions with clinically significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complicated grief [1,2]. The experience of loss varies depending on the circumstances of the death. The disappearance of a beloved person can be a stressful form of loss. Scholars have observed that grief reactions following a disappearance are a normal response to an abnormal situation [4,5]. If the type of grief experienced by a bereaved family reflects the circumstances of their loss, an unresolved grief may be the result of an unresolved loss [6,7]

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