The relational landscape of bereavement after anticipated death: An interpretive model

Abstract

To complement existing literature and better capture the diversity of factors influencing grief, a more interpersonal understanding is required. Thus, we used the relational landscape’s concept and empirical investigation to clarify the roles of individuals surrounding the bereaved. Sixteen interviews with bereaved individuals by euthanasia or natural death were analyzed using Interpretive Description. We present a model describing five types of actors in the environment of the bereaved and their ways of “being with” or giving space. We also include four lived landscapes in our model, with the purpose of describing how bereavement can be experienced within the social environment.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests to report.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants for sharing their experiences with us. Your stories touched us deeply and we hope that our work will honor your generosity. We would also like to thank our colleague Sophia Bourkas who revised the English of this paper and Jeff Ferreri, research assistant, who helped transcribe the interviews. A final thank you to the reviewers: your insights improved this paper greatly.

Notes

1 Some scholars differentiate grief (the reaction to the loss) and bereavement (the state of having lost someone and the time during which grief occurs). Others use the terms interchangeably. In the present paper, we use them as synonyms to facilitate reading and respect the way the terminology was used by our French-speaking participants. In French, there is only one word to designate both of these realities, “deuil.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé [#270134].