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Grief
The Price of Love
Svend Brinkmann
Translated by Tam McTurk
polity
© Svend Brinkmann and Klim Publishers
First published in Danish as Det Sørgende Dyr, © Klim Publishers, 2018 This English edition © Polity Press, 2020
Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4125-6
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brinkmann, Svend, author. | McTurk, Tam, translator.
Title: Grief : the price of love / Svend Brinkmann ; translated by Tam McTurk.
Other titles: Sørgende dyr. English
Description: English edition. | Cambridge ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Translated from Danish. | Summary: “Brinkmann yet again offers a brilliant and illuminating account of one of the core components of human experience - grief “-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041174 (print) | LCCN 2019041175 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509541232 | ISBN 9781509541249 (pb) | ISBN 9781509541256 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Grief. | Bereavement--Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC BF575.G7 B7367 2020 (print) | LCC BF575.G7 (ebook) | DDC 155.9/37--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041174 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041175
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Preface
This is a book about grief. It is not a treatment manual, personal account or self-help reference work for moving on. There are enough of those out there already, reflecting the widespread public interest in the phenomenon and the advent of ‘complicated grief’ as a clinical diagnosis. Any number of people will willingly offer their help to those who have suffered the loss of a loved one. Once deemed personal and private, the preserve of bereaved individuals and groups, grief has become a matter for professionals, something to be treated with medicine and addressed by institutions. Since almost everybody encounters the phenomenon at some point or other, the potential market for diagnosis and treatment is huge. Nonetheless, the focus of this book is not on intervention, therapy or other forms of treatment. Instead, it explores the very essence of grief – its phenomenology. It seeks to analyse the fundamental nature of grief as a universal human condition, while recognising that it varies enormously depending on factors such as time and culture. The aim is to temper the debate about the medicalisation and pathologisation of grief, which is addressed in the final chapter.
The book has emerged from an ongoing research project, ‘The Culture of Grief’, which has been generously funded by the Obel Family Foundation. The project looks at how individuals experience grief, but also at collective mourning and how it relates to contemporary culture. Its many sub-projects – and indeed, this book – focus solely on the grief caused by bereavement. Although it is valid to discuss grief more broadly, as a response to divorce, illness, redundancy or other traumatic experiences, it would be beyond the scope of this book – partly because the new psychiatric diagnoses refer specifically to grief in response to death, but also because it is important not to blur the focus. The book does not look at specific types of grief, but approaches it as a generic phenomenon, something about which universal points can be made. It seeks to analyse the general features of the phenomenon and its impact on both individuals and society. The premise – that it is possible to approach grief as a generic phenomenon – is, of course, open to challenge. Some might deny any similarity between, for example, a parent losing a child and the death of a grandparent. By adopting a phenomenological approach – examining the phenomenon in terms of how it is experienced by humans – the book attempts to uncover the common features in grief’s many manifestations. The ultimate success of that endeavour will depend not just on the analyses included here, but also on other scholars adopting a similar approach.
I would like to thank my friends at Klim for embracing the original idea of publishing a book about grief – especially Michael Nonboe and Camilla Rohde Søndergaard, who have been a huge help with my scientific work for many years. I would also like to thank Louise Knight in particular for publishing the English version, and Tam McTurk
