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Encountering the Significant Dead: A Narrative Inquiry into Grief and Dreams

Schweitzer, Jeffrey R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1406838672

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Psychology.
Prominent grief theorists of the 20th century, from Freud (1917) to Worden (1982), have defined the ultimate task of grief and mourning as the relinquishment of bonds with the dead. Over the past few decades, however, numerous studies have shown that the bereaved not only experience the presence of the dead, but that they also tend to find such experiences highly meaningful and even healing. That said, very few researchers have studied the continuing presence of the dead in the context of bereavement dreams. For this narrative inquiry, then, I sought to examine dreams in which the bereaved encounter their loved ones and the significance of these dreams for the grieving process. Approaching the study from a narrative (Chase, 2005) and archetypal (Hillman, 1979) perspective, my three aims were (1) to learn about the phenomenology of imaginal encounters with the dead for the bereaved, namely through dreams, and the significance of such experiences for the grieving process; (2) to examine stories of grief and loss in terms of personal and archetypal mythology; and (3) to explore, and elaborate, theoretical and methodological intersections of narrative and archetypal psychology. More generally, I wished to evocatively represent and better understand this marginalized, yet quite common, kind of grief experience by way of a narrative methodology. I interviewed four women, ranging in age from 18 to 60, who reported encounter dreams amidst the loss of a father, a mother, a grandfather, and a husband. Two of the participants, a granddaughter and her maternal grandmother, discussed the loss of the same person—grandfather and husband to them, respectively. First, all of the women reported at least one encounter dream in which they felt visited by the dead, in spite of being aware in the dream that the loved one had died. By virtue of these dreams, most of the women realized that they could have an ongoing relationship with the dead, even when the manner and frequency with which the dead appeared did not accord with their expectations. Second, to the extent that the loss was experienced as pervasive, most of the women reported significant changes to their identity, values and beliefs, and anticipations of the future as part of their grieving process. Finally, I reflected on these narratives and my analysis of them in terms of mythobiography, a genre of qualitative research involving an imaginative and non-dualistic approach to storied experiences.
Larry Leitner (Committee Chair)
Roger Knudson (Committee Member)
Vaishali Raval (Committee Member)
Ann Fuehrer (Committee Member)
276 p.
Clinical Psychology
Grief; Dreams; Narrative; Archetypal Psychology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schweitzer, J. R. (2014). Encountering the Significant Dead: A Narrative Inquiry into Grief and Dreams [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1406838672

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schweitzer, Jeffrey. Encountering the Significant Dead: A Narrative Inquiry into Grief and Dreams. 2014. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1406838672.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schweitzer, Jeffrey. "Encountering the Significant Dead: A Narrative Inquiry into Grief and Dreams." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1406838672

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.