The loss adjusters

Abstract

One of my first reactions to Tony Walter's article 'A new model of grief: bereavement and biography' was astonishment. The substance of his argument simply did not add up to a new 'model', but by giving it this description he added, in my view, undeserved weight to his, nevertheless intriguing, ideas. I agree with Margaret Stroebe (1997) that Walter's 'model' may not be new, but rather supplementary to present models which tend to emphasise inter- and intra-personal perspectives of mourning. My response comes from a personal angle, both as someone who has experienced an acute loss—and Walter refers briefly to the possibility that different kinds of loss may incur different types of reactions—and from the point of view of a practitioner/counsellor.