Enfranchising grief following suicide: A case study of an Israeli social organization

ABSTRACT

Researchers have yet to explore suicide survivors activities in social organizations, which was the present purpose. I studied an Israeli organization, Path to Life, by interviewing 16 members, attending 11 events, and examining media, online, and print information. Although mainly comprised of activists whose loss occurred in civilian circumstances, frame analysis revealed that the organization emphasizes connections between suicide and esteemed military-related death. By relying on a legitimate model of dealing with death, the activists provided meaning to suicide and promoted a sociocultural change through drawing attention to a silenced death, upgrading the suicide victims’ status, and enfranchising survivors’ grief.

Acknowledgments

Early versions of this article were presented at the International Conference on Loss, Bereavement, and Human Resilience in Israel and the World, Eilat, 2016 and at The Conference of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, Portland, OR, 2017. I thank the participants for their enriching remarks. My thanks also go to Yoav Cohen for providing editorial help. Above all, I wish to express my gratitude to the members of Path to Life for their willingness to share with me their experiences and losses.