Earlier Losses Research Articles

FEELING POST-MORTEM PHOTOGRAPHY: ETSY SELLERS’ MOURNING LISTINGS

Etsy sellers employ such terms as ‘touching’ to describe vintage post-mortem and mourning photographs. In this article, I provide an analysis of the ways sellers produce feelings and encourage buyers to connect with earlier sentiments around mourning. Sellers digitally reproduce antiquarian photographs and contemporary props, incorporate framing information, and suggest how items physically and emotionally feel. I argue that sellers use these practices to provide viewers with emotional experiences of mourning and what has been described as ‘feeling photography.’ As Elspeth H. Brown and Thy Phu note in their feminist and queer anthology on the subject, feeling photography stimulates dismay and sympathy when seeing violent images and mourning when viewing portraits of deceased intimates. As part of these processes, Etsy sellers reference textured objects to connect buyers to items and feelings. I thus cite Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s and other scholars’ considerations of textures and feelings, Roland Barthes’s proposal for how death and mourning are experienced through photography, and analyses of nineteenth-century photographs. My feminist and queer reading demonstrates how sellers support normative expectations about the heightened mourning of children, displace contemporary inequities by focusing on earlier losses, and (often unintentionally) render such less traditional identities as the queer child.

In the past 100 years dragonflies declined and recovered by habitat restoration and climate change

The availability of opportunistic dragonfly data in the Netherlands spanning >100 years gave us the opportunity to quantitatively assess long term changes in range size. We estimated changes in the number of occupied 5 km × 5 km sites by applying a modified List Length method, which takes into account changes in observation effort. Trends were assessed for nearly all Dutch dragonfly species and the trends were then summarised in Multi-Species Indicators by taking the geometric mean of the species indices. Overall, dragonflies severely declined in range size between the periods 1850–1950 and 1975–1990. In the period thereafter, strong increases happened, during which many species compensated their earlier losses. The factors driving the changes in dragonflies shifted over time. Until 1975 dragonfly species declined due to deterioration of water systems. After 1975 both climate change and habitat restoration contributed to the recovery of many species. Restoration of dragonfly communities was most successful in running water and least effective in moorland pools.

Abstract P174: First Trimester Blood Pressure Elevation May Have A Greater Impact On The Risk Of Spontaneous Abortion Than Preconception Blood Pressure

Background: Spontaneous abortion (SAB) is a common early pregnancy complication globally, impacting 15% of clinically recognized pregnancies. The biological pathways leading to SAB are not clearly understood, although early SAB is often attributed to chromosomal abnormalities. Elevated blood pressure (BP) in women of reproductive age predicts cardiovascular disease later in life, but less clear is whether elevated BP during preconception and/or early pregnancy BP elevations can affect prenatal outcomes. Hypothesis: Elevated BP during preconception and the first trimester will be positively associated with SAB. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected from 577 primiparous women (15-35 years) who participated in the Longitudinal Indian Family hEalth (LIFE) prospective pregnancy cohort study in Telangana State, India. Resting blood pressure was measured by trained technicians using a standardized study protocol at a preconception registration visit and in the first trimester. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of any SAB (<22 weeks of gestation, n=108), early SAB (<8 weeks of gestation, n=25), and late SAB (8 to <22 weeks of gestation n=83) were assessed with a log link binomial distribution. Results: Preconception measurements were assessed at the first study visit, conducted at registration and within a mean±SD of 11±12 months prior to pregnancy. Higher than optimal preconception BP (120/80 mmHg) was not associated with SAB (OR adj 0.82 (95% CI 0.51, 1.32)). In contrast, first trimester elevated BP was associated with a two-fold increased likelihood of SAB, although results were of borderline significance (OR adj 2.12 (95%CI 0.87, 5.14). In addition, we observed an association between elevated first trimester BP and late SAB (OR adj 2.32 (95%CI 0.95, 5.68)); there were no associations between elevated preconception or first trimester BP and early SAB. Conclusions: We found that elevated first trimester but not preconception BP was associated with an increased risk of pregnancy loss, suggesting that dysregulated adaption to pregnancy may impact pregnancy loss more than preconception BP status, especially SABs that occur after 8 weeks gestation. Our findings support the notion that clinical and environmental factors may have a greater impact on later SABs as opposed to earlier losses. The null relationship with early pregnancy loss in our study may be due to an expected genetic mutation etiology for those losses. Studies exploring the trajectory of preconception and prenatal blood pressure changes and impact on pregnancy outcomes are warranted.

Challenging Aspects of Bereavement and Grief in Older Adults with Dementia: A Case Series and Clinical Considerations

Introduction: Bereavement is commonly experienced among older adults and has been shown to predict adverse health outcomes and may be linked to cognitive impairment. There is a paucity of literature on the impact of bereavement on older adults with dementia, contrasting extensive research on how dementia carers cope with their grief. Methods: 5 case studies of older adults with dementia and their bereavement reactions to losses are reported. The description of the phenomenology of bereavement distress in the case series help to shed light on its unique manifestations and how we can better understand this highly vulnerable group in their grief. Results: Normal grief reactions of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance can be experienced in early dementia. As the disease progresses, persons with dementia (PWD) may be too cognitively impaired to experience and express their grief. A vague sense that something is wrong with inner distress may manifest as behavioural disturbances, for although cognition declines, feelings and states of emotional pain remain. PWD may not be aware of the loss or may confuse the present loss with earlier losses. Seemingly nonreactions of mourning were noted to be much more common than those found among persons with normal intellectual ability. Conclusions: PWD and their families can be supported through the stages of grief by society and other support systems. Ethically, PWD have the right to grieve and mourn but the experiencing of acute grief and distress multiple times with ‘re-traumatization’ when the truth is revealed each time may be considered cruel and insensitive. It may be understandable why some family members and care staff try to shield PWD from reality. There may be questions as to whether or not to tell, how to tell and how the revelation will impact on their psychological well-being as well as their caregivers. PWD need to be approached differently when they experience bereavement and loss. If the grief response of the PWD is not sufficiently understandable in the context of the loss, there is the risk of them being inadvertently excluded from their family’s cycle of grief. Professional and family caregivers need to appreciate that PWD can be capable of grieving and we need to see how we can best support them and their loved ones in their grieving process.

Damages vs. Rent in Tenant Abandonment Situations

A recent California decision (now depublished) held that a tenant could offet the landlord’s subsequent profits from reletting against its earlier losses after the tenant abandoned.

Social rebirth and social transformation? Rebuilding social lives after ART in rural Uganda

This paper examines how HIV diagnosis, illness and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) have an impact on the social dimensions of people's lives in rural Uganda, focusing on identity, relationships and membership of groups. Using concepts drawn from sociological research on experiences of illness and recovery, “getting back to normal”, “rebirth” and “turning point”, we present findings from qualitative research that explored the social changes brought about by HIV and ART among 70 men and women taking ART since 2003. With a second chance at life, some people's narratives revealed a pursuit of getting “back to normal”, restoring and resuming their place in their families and communities. Others sought to change or transform their new lives, what we term a “social rebirth”, moving away from old social networks and lifestyles. Regaining health was associated with a desire to make the most of life by joining social groups and civil society organisations, establishing new relationships and advising and supporting others. However, earlier losses of family and friends due to AIDS-related deaths made “social rebirth” hard for many people. Our findings also show that the process of responding to ART is not linear and the pursuit of change following diagnosis and treatment may be difficult to sustain, as the months and years on ART progress and the struggles of getting on with life take their toll. Sustaining social rebirth was challenging and complex due to the nature of HIV infection itself (for example, new intimate relationships pose challenges) and the harsh economic environment. Maintaining changed lives for those living with HIV and ART is important because this will contribute to better disease self-management and so demands an understanding by support organisations of the nature of these changes and challenges.

Wetlands loss in Louisiana

One third of coastal Louisiana could sink beneath the Gulf of Mexico by 2050, if no new restoration efforts take place, the U.S. Geological Survey announced on 20 May.The state could lose about 1800 square km of coastal land on top of its earlier losses. Louisiana already has lost about 4920 square km of coastal land, mostly marshland, during the 20th century. The state has the distinction of being the location of about 90% of total coastal marshland that has been lost to date in the continental U.S.

Mapping disturbances in a mangrove forest using multi-date landsat TM imagery.

To evaluate the accounts of local fishermen, Landsat TM images (1986, 1993, 1999) were examined to assess potential losses in the mangrove forests of the Teacapán-Agua Brava lagoon system, Mexico. A binary change mask derived from image differencing of a band 4/3 ratio was employed to calculate any changes within this forested wetland. The results indicate that by 1986 approximately 18% (or 86 km2) of the mangrove area under study was either dead or in poor condition. The majority of this damage had occurred in the eastern section of the Agua Brava basin, which coincides, with the reports of the elderly fishermen. Examination of aerial photographs from 1970 revealed no adverse impacts in this area and would suggest, as postulated by the fishermen and other scientists, that modifications in environmental conditions following the opening of a canal, Cuautlá canal, in 1972 may have initiated the large-scale mortality. Although these areas of impact are still developing, the results from the satellite data indicate that the majority of the more recent changes are occurring elsewhere in the system. Obvious in the 1999 satellite data, but not so in the 1993, are large areas of mangrove degradation in the northern section of the Teacapán region. In the Agua Brava basin, the more recent transformations are appearing on the western side of the basin. Since long-term records of environmental conditions are absent, it is difficult to determine why these latest changes are occurring or even if the earlier losses were the result of the canal. Potential agents of change that have recently been observed include a hurricane, a second canal, and the uncontrolled expansion of the Cuautlá canal since 1994.

The Establishment of a New Brown Noddy Anous stolidus Breeding Colony off South-Western Australia

SummaryA new breeding colony of the Brown Noddy, which started on Lancelin Island in south-western Australia around 1991, expanded exponentially between 1994–95 and 1996–97. This growth in the number of breeding pairs resulted from the immigration of noddies from another breeding area, probably the Houtman Abrolhos 275 km to the north. In the 1996–97 breeding season there were two distinct waves of laying. The initial laying period, which had occurred in the previous two seasons, peaked in early November and was more synchronous than the second one. The second wave peaked in early December and resulted from laying by new arrivals with probably some re-laying from earlier losses. There was a significant reduction in clutch volume after the first 15 days of laying. Factors which may have produced a decline in egg size later in the season are discussed.

The end as a means to growth-within the social work relationship

This article has the intention of working and re-working the meaning and outcome of the ending of professional relationships, particularly in relation to social workers and their clients, whether children, young people, or adults. It is taken that endings in such relationships may re-awaken earlier losses. The article further considers the teaching of the topic at pre-professional stages, and during social work courses for both undergraduates and postgraduates. Examples are given of students' practice which illustrate the way in which endings may demonstrate growth through the experience.

Older Women and Grief: A New Direction for Research

ABSTRACT While the grief of older women is often assumed to result from recent losses associated with the aging process, the grief reaction of many older women may be influenced by much earlier losses which are unique to women. We propose the effect of these unique losses may complicate the grief process by intensifying both the emotional and physical reaction to recent losses. We encourage researchers to consider losses which are unique to women in the research on grieving in the later stages of life, so that we may understand the impact of such losses.

The psychoanalytic conceptualization of perinatal loss: a multidimensional model.

Much has been learned about perinatal loss over the past 20 years through clinical investigations and quantitative research. However, a review of studies over the past decade reveals that perinatal loss is increasingly being seen in the same way as a death of any other member of the family, rather than as a unique bereavement. A comprehensive understanding of perinatal loss anchored in a theoretical framework of pregnancy is lacking. This article offers a multidimensional model for examining this loss by applying four psychoanalytic interpretations of pregnancy. 1) From the perspective of pregnancy ushering in the new developmental phase of parenthood, perinatal loss becomes a developmental interference, disrupting a significant milestone as well as causing isolation from peers. 2) In light of the usual recapitulation of earlier conflicts during pregnancy as noted by drive theory, perinatal loss may lead to an intensification of intrapsychic conflicts. 3) Understanding pregnancy as the creation of a specific person in an object relations model highlights the importance of mourning after perinatal death, as well as the need to tend to associated unresolved grief from earlier losses. 4) Finally, a model of narcissism describes how pregnancy reorganizes self-esteem, thereby delineating the intense narcissistic injury and rage that often follow perinatal loss. These multiple frameworks help to explain the many repercussions of this loss as well as to account for individual differences. Research findings are selectively reviewed to support the validity of this model. Conversely, this model may productively guide future avenues for research.

Suicidal behavior among inner-city Hispanic adolescent females

Suicidal behavior is disproportionately frequent among inner-city Hispanic adolescent girls. In an attempt to generate a multifactorial set of hypotheses to explain this behavior, 33 such subjects consecutively admitted for suicidal behavior and 15 demographically identical nonsuicidal subjects were assessed by means of a structured interview. Mothers of all subjects were also assessed. Attempts were nearly always impulsive and nonlethal, though often with a stated wish to die. Nearly all were overdoses, and were precipitated by conflicts with mother or boyfriend. Mothers could usually identify the precipitants. Attempters' parents were less often born in the U.S., their mothers seemed medically less healthy, and their extended families were more often supported by public assistance, and had a higher incidence of criminal and psychiatric problems. School performance was poorer among attempters, who had suffered more and earlier losses, especially of biologic fathers, with whom fewer had ongoing relationships. They more often had boyfriends, had begun sexual activity, had recently lost friends, and expressed a mistrustful stance toward friend-ships. Similarly, their mothers had fewer friends and more often expressed a mistrustful stance. Relationships with mothers seemed more intense, desperate, and even violent, and attempters were much more often parentified, i.e., mothering their mothers. Although both groups often assumed caretaking roles in their families, attempters were more negatively described by themselves and by their mothers. While knowledge of suicidal models was common in both groups, attempters' mothers knew of even more models than did their daughters or the nonsuicidal subjects or their mothers. Notably, more attempters' mothers had themselves made attempts. Families of most attempters were usually mobilized by the attempt. These findings permit the construction of a putative profile of risk factors that can be tested more rigorously.

Regressive Transferences—A Manifestation of Primitive Personality Organization

Regressive transferences are but one manifestation of dynamic infantile and frequently unconscious fantasies seen in patients with a primitive personality organization. Such transference relationships may vary from an apparent profound unrelatedness to intense symbiotic dependencies. These transferences are primarily preoedipal and may include grandiose, persecuting, somatizing and dehumanized object experiences as well as narcissistic idealizing and denigrating selfobject formations. Three types of regressive transferences in patients with primitive personalities are described: primitive libidinal, transference automatism, and somatization. All three demonstrate symbolically meaningful but primarily unconscious primitive transference reenactments. Regressive transferences not only represent impulses seeking gratification but are also restitutive attempts for earlier losses and lack of self-cohesion. Patients with a primitive personality organization often have suffered early deprivations that bring about the formation of unstable internal representations. This makes acceptance of ambivalence and mourning difficult due to fear of ego dissolution caused by the aggression toward the self and others. Identification and exploration of shared intersubjective phenomena may facilitate conscious reconstruction and eventual interpretation of these regressive transferences.

Chapter 10: Leaving Home Again:

Young people emancipating from foster care are in the process of leaving home again. In addition to tangible independent living skills, these young people require assistance with the emotional, intangible aspects of emancipation including reliving the separation experience and confusing about their identity. Foster parents can be trained to assist youth in the emacipation process by understanding that preparation of the young person will often lead to a reactivation of earlier losses, maladaptive responses to separation and rejection, reunion fantansies, and may reactivate emotional scar tissue which has previously helped the young person with their loss experiences. Preparation of the young person for emancipation involves teamwork among social workers, therapists, and foster parents, as well as group experiences for the emancipating youth. Foster parents and youth may also be encouraged to maintain post-emancipation relationships.

Parity specific perinatal mortality. A longitudinal study based on sibships

Perinatal mortality in sibships has been examined using the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Using linear logistic regression, parity specific perinatal mortality in the period 1967-1981 has been analysed, controlling simultaneously for maternal age, year of birth and survival of earlier births. The risk of a perinatal loss was increased by a factor of up to 6.0 following one earlier perinatal loss, and with three earlier losses the increase was 17.0. The general reduction in mortality between the different five year periods varied according to parity and maternal age. No secular reduction in risk, however, was demonstrated in sibships where the first birth died perinatally; for some subgroups of women the risk actually increased between the first and the second five year period. The effect of maternal age changed with parity, being strong in the first birth order, but of no effect either for the third or the fourth birth orders once the perinatal survival of earlier births was controlled for. This study shows the need to take heterogeneity of risk between women into account in studies of perinatal loss; the overall improvement in perinatal mortality does not apply to every woman. As care improves, perinatal losses become less and less random, demonstrated by increased risks of recurrence.

Issues in the Transfer of Children in Dynamic Psychotherapy

Abstract In many clinical facilities transfer of the child requiring continued psychotherapy from one therapist to another is a frequent occurrence. Psychological conflicts involved in the reassignment of such children are considered from the perspectives of the therapist who is transferring the child, of the child, and of the therapist receiving the transfer. Conflicts implicit in transfer need to be recognized to forestall the danger of cases breaking treatment, to limit the loss in therapeutic momentum, as well as to exploit the therapeutic benefit of reactivated feelings about earlier losses.

A Survey of Lungworm Infection in Bighorn Sheep of Montana

A survey of lungworm infection (Protostrongylus stilesi and P. rushi) in the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) of Montana was conducted from 1958 to 1963. Ninety-one percent of 900 fecal samples collected from 10 bighorn herds in western Montana contained protostrongylid larvae. Ninety-three percent of 143 lungs examined were infected with P. stilesi and 40 percent with both P. stilesi and P. rushi. No lungs contained only P. rushi. Total lesion area of P. stilesi infections averaged 2,332 mm2 and varied from I to 12,462 mm2. Numbers of adult P. rushi averaged 10 per infected lung and varied from 1 to 162. Sheep appeared to become infected during their first year of life. There seemed to be some association between infections of P. stilesi and P. rushi in lungs and the numbers of first-stage protostrongylid larvae in the feces when samples were compared on a herd basis. Numbers of first-stage larvae in individual fecal droppings from the same samples, in samples collected daily from the same animal, and in samples collected monthly from a herd of bighorns varied considerably. Feces collected during the spring contained more larvae than samples collected at other times of the year. Yearly variation in intensity of infection appeared to be directly correlated to the amount of precipitation in the preceding year. There has been a general decline in the number of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep since the nineteenth century. During this period there have been some dramatic dieoffs which have stimulated a number of studies (Buechner 1960). Various disease conditions have been noted in these studies, and recently a lungworm-pneumonia complex has been implicated as the most important. Hunter and Pillmore (1954: 118) suggest that many of the earlier losses attributed to hemorrhagic septicemia may actually have been due to this disease complex. The parenchymal lungworm (P. stilesi) and the broncheolar lungworm (P. rushi) have been commonly associated with the complex. Protostrongylus stilesi has been reported to be the more virulent of the two species (Honess 1942:23). Basic to an understanding of the impact of lungworm on bighorn sheep is information on the intensity and distribution of fections in natural populations. Reports of lungworms in bighorn sheep have been reviewed by Buechner (1960:94-104). The most extensive and detailed survey was conducted in Colorado (Hunter and Pillmore 1954:125-126, Pillmore 1961:8793). The present survey in Montana was initiated in 1958 and continued to 1963. Its purpose was to determine the frequency and degree of protostrongylid lungworm infection so that they could be used with other data for evaluation of bighorn sheep population dynamics and management. This study was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF G-19422). The 1958-60 data are from a thesis submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Wildlife Technology at Montana State University, Missoula. The authors wish to thank the personnel of the Montana Fish and Game Department and the hunters who helped in collecting bighorn lungs and fecal samples. R. E. Pillmore, for'Present address: Department of Veterinary Microbiology, University of California, Davis. 2 Present address: Department of Biology, Western Washington State College, Bellingham.