First published in Well-being 3-4, September 2009

Walter, C. A. and McCoyd, J. L. M. (2009) Grief and Loss across the Lifespan: A Biopsychosocial Approach, New York, Springer, ISBN 978 0826 12757 0 £46.95

Gamino, L. and Ritter, R. H. Jr (2009) Ethical Practice in Grief Counseling, New York, Springer, ISBN 978 0826 10083 2, £38.60

Papadatou, D. (2009) In the Face of Death: Professionals who Care for the Dying and the Bereaved, New York, Springer, ISBN 978 0826 10256, £47.95

All three of the books offer interesting food for thought and will be of use to people already well versed in the subject matter and to people coming to the issues for the first time.

Walter and McCoyd explore loss and grief issues throughout the lifespan, showing that such concerns can apply at any time of life. I particularly liked the section on ‘retirement and re-invention’. Its positive approach to this stage of life is very much to be welcomed as a counterbalance to the negativity so often encountered.

I was also pleased to see that the book adopts a ‘biopsychosocial’ approach – that is, one that incorporates biological, psychological and sociological elements in order to provide a more holistic under standing than the traditional, fairly narrow psychological approaches that are so common in books relating to loss and grief. However, the social element presented here is mainly social psychological rather than sociological (that is, the focus remains on the individual in social context with relatively little attention to wider structural institutions and processes that go beyond the individual). These broader aspects of loss and grief continue to go relatively unexplored. As I have consistently maintained, we will struggle to develop an adequate understanding of loss and grief if we persist in neglecting the sociological dimensions of human experience. A fuller understanding of well-being calls for a fuller understanding of social structures, institutions and processes and their role in shaping individual and group experiences.

But what is clearly a strength of the book is its recognition of the role of loss and grief in people’s lives. The book’s opening sentence captures this well: ‘Loss is at the heart of life and growth’. I therefore hope that this book will be successful and play an important part in getting this message across.

In the second of the books, the focus of Gamino and Ritter’s work is narrower, having the ethical implications of grief counselling as its topic. I found this an interesting book that seeks to blend theory and practice. The authors do this by discussing complex ethical issues but also drawing out practice implications from them. They succeed in doing this without overstepping the mark and becoming prescriptive. They also manage to give a clear account of different forms of ethics – and this  is no mean feat. In the past I have spent a lot of time talking to students who have sought my help in making sense of the complexities they had been wrestling with in other textbooks on ethics.

The book is wide ranging in its coverage. Confidentiality, end-of-life controversies, sexual intimacy and Internet counselling are just some of the many issues explored, helping to cast a great deal of light  on them in the process.One chapter I found particularly interesting, and one which has implications for workplace well-being, is the sectionon reporting a colleague or facing a complaint. My work as a consultant has brought me into a number of situations where both ‘whistleblowing’ and being on the receiving end of a complaint (whether justified or not) are to the fore. I am therefore aware that such situations can be not only stressful in the short term, but also career defining in the longer term. This chapter, with its considered discussion of the ethical issues involved, is therefore one that has much to offer.

This book will appeal to people with a general interest in ethical issues, but more significantly, it will  be of value to people whose work brings them into contact with people who are grieving. This means  everyone in the helping professions and, as I have argued elsewhere (Thompson, 2009), managers  and human resource professionals also need to be well informed about grief issues, as they are likely to encounter them in their work setting sooner or later. Its particular value will be in helping us to think through the ethical complexities involved in working with people who are potentially very vulnerable as a result of the disorienting effect of the grief they are experiencing.

In the third of the books, Danai Papadatou, a psychology professor at the University of Athens, writes about the support needs of professionals who care for dying and bereaved people. For me this is a really important topic, both in general terms and more specifically in terms of workplace well-being. 

It is good to see that the book is critical of medicalised approaches to grief. Grief is not, of course, an illness, and yet so often it is talked of and written about as if it were. The author emphasises the importance of a more holistic view of grief, although there is again here very little consideration of wider sociological factors. Of course, it would be unfair to criticise a psychologist for not addressing sociological issues, but a truly holistic perspective must rise above disciplinary boundaries and present a fuller, more socially embedded approach.

This concern apart, I really liked this book. It shows a good balance of head and heart, in the sense that it provides some well-reasoned evidence-based arguments, while also showing a sensitivity to  the complex emotional issues involved. Linked to this is the recognition that grief, despite its immense pain, has the potential to bring growth.

A further two sets of issues I found interesting and which I felt were well handled were compassion fatigue and teamwork. Any form of work can be potentially fatiguing and stressful, but work that involves the considerable emotional pressures of confronting death and dying on a regular basis can be even more demanding in this regard. ‘Compassion fatigue’ is an important concept that is often forgotten, and so the discussion of it here is particularly welcome.

The teamwork issue is also an important one. My professional role has often brought me face to face with the challenges of helping teams work effectively together and not let the inevitable conflicts involved in human interaction push them apart. Where the team has the additional pressures of signi- ficant emotional pressure to deal with, there can be even more potential for problems to arise. Papadatou’s discussion of these challenges and how to rise to them is helpful and illuminating, although again could have been enhanced by a consideration of structural and other such sociological factors.

There is a strong spiritual side to this book which is good to see. In particular the focus on hope is very helpful. For me, hope is an aspect of spirituality that is often forgotten and therefore not given adequate consideration. This is a concept that applies not only to the grieving individuals who need support, but also to the professionals who are charged with providing or facilitating such support.

Overall, this book has much to commend it and should be read not only by members of the helping professions, but also by managers and human resource professionals who should be developing a fuller understanding of the impact of grief on employees – especially those employees where facing up to death and loss is part and parcel of the work.

There is already a large and significant literature relating to loss and grief and these three books are worthy additions to that store of knowledge. As with any book, they have strengths and weaknesses, but what is important is that they each play, in their own way, an important role in contributing to our understanding. And, in doing that, they each emphasise how important these matters are in people’s lives and how they need to be incorporated into our efforts to promote well-being.

Reviewed by Neil Thompson

Reference

Thompson, N. (2009) Loss, Grief and Trauma in the Workplace, Amityville, NY, Baywood.

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