Topics in death and dying education classes can be troubling for students, some of whom may have enrolled in such classes in order to seek help. This paper contains recommendations regarding happiness-related exercises that could be employed when teaching death and dying classes from a communications perspective in general education programs. At…

Should forgiveness be considered a civic virtue that promotes peace and justice following injustice? In the aftermath of conflicts as severe as state-sponsored genocide, how can relationships be restored, communities reconciled, and justice achieved? We interviewed 15 adults in Rwanda--survivors of the 1994 genocide, nominated as exemplars for…

This study examined the grief effects college students experience when losing a loved one and whether grief effects vary based on gender. Grief effects were outlined by the Holistic Impact of Bereavement and included emotional, cognitive, physical, behavioral, interpersonal, and spiritual effects. The researchers hypothesized that college students…

This paper analyses the phenomenon of the death of informants. Based on his own experience with the long-term (1999-2016) research of Voyvodovo -- the only Czech village in Bulgaria, the author shows what the death of one's informants means for the research and the researcher. The author argues that any long-term fieldwork entails emotional…

Bereaved people frequently report perceiving the continued presence of the person they lost in the form of a voice, a vision, a felt presence or any other sensory perception. This report explores this psychological phenomenon, experiences of presence, using narrative interviewing and analysis. Ten people were interviewed, in English or Spanish,…

Many Pre-K through grade 12 (PK-12) students have experienced traumatic events throughout the pandemic in a myriad of ways including the death of family members and peers, loss of social interaction and increased violence at home. The consequences can be traumatic and manifest themselves in fear, anxiety, anger, isolation, and loneliness. Too…

General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and…

The Nobel Prize winning poet Tomas Tranströmer was born and bred in Sweden, a remarkably Scandinavian country. Topographically, Scandinavian countries are locations of extreme cold and snowing. This distinguishing climatic condition has had a dominant influence and impact on almost all Scandinavian art and literature, including Tomas Tranströmer's…

The author argues that in its focus on finding positive outcomes, bereavement research has neglected or denigrated central phenomena in intense and long-term grief: sorrow and solace. Sorrow has two elements: yearning for the dead person and grief's depression. Consolation comes into sorrow in human relationships and from inner resources. The…

The definition of a traumatic event in Criterion A for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was narrowed in DSM-5 for events involving indirect exposure to the death of a loved one. Whereas the DSM-IV definition encompassed the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one regardless of the circumstances, the DSM-5 definition now requires that the death…

Some individuals believe physical death is the only form of death we experience on this planet. Is such a belief valid? In the Western world, essentially, physical death is seen as the end of life on this planet. It's all over "here." But is physical death really the only form of death experienced while on earth? Physical death is the…

Past studies have suggested that during their time on campus, as many as half of all undergraduates will experience the death of a loved one (Balk, 2001; Balk, Walker, & Baker, 2010; Holland & Neimeyer, 2010). The purpose of this study was to use a phenomenological method to uncover a thick, rich description of the lived experience of…

The purpose of this study was to identity how events perceived as traumatic or very difficult to handle, factors of emotional distress, and demographics may predict nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMPD) among traditional undergraduate college students. This secondary analysis utilized data from the National College Health Assessment II (NCHA…

This article presents, in the form of a clinical illustration, a therapeutic group of bereaved mothers with special reference to their dreams about their deceased children. The article presents descriptions of the emotions of these mothers and countertransference feelings, a topic that, to our knowledge, has not been frequently studied. The group…

Research has focused primarily on the impact of death on family functioning and the stages and tasks of grief, though little attention has been given to grief camps or the experiences of those who work there. This study explored the experiences of staff at a four-day overnight children's grief camp. Eight participants reported their experience of…