From morality to pathology: A brief historization of contemporary Western grief practices and understandings

Abstract

In this paper, I present three ideal typical grief articulations drawn from three historical periods: (1) grief as a moral practice in Ancient Greek virtue ethics, (2) grief as an expression of an inner, authentic morality in the Romantic era, and (3) grief as a psychologized and increasingly pathologized phenomenon in modern psychology up to the present attempts to include separate diagnoses for pathological grief in the diagnostic manuals for mental disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; World Health Organization, 2016). The purpose of this presentation is to shed light on current taken-for-granted notions of grief, and, by providing some historical background, challenge prevailing understandings that depict grief as an ahistorical, universal, intra-psychological and (potentially) medical condition that is analytically separate from historical, social, cultural, and religious practices. Informed by a cultural psychological outlook (Brinkmann, 2016; Valsiner, 2014), I argue that the relationship between grieving individuals and their cultures is dialectical, mutually constituting and inherently normative, and hence, that the diagnostic approach to grief as an individual, causal reaction to loss is flawed. On this background, I argue that an acknowledgment of the inherent normativity of grief (as presented by the historical accounts) can potentially inform and enrich contemporary understandings and practices related to bereavement, ultimately to the benefit of people who suffer from grief.

Keywords:

• grief
• loss
• mental illness
• diagnostic cultures
• historical transformations
• pathologization