Bereavement and the meaning of profound feelings of emptiness: An existential-phenomenological analysis

Allan Køster

Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport/konference proceedingBidrag til bog/antologiForskningpeer review

Abstract

In this chapter, I investigate the meaning of profound feelings of emptiness following the bereavement of an intimate other. Contrary to a standard Freudian account, stating that such feelings of emptiness are exclusively emanating from an experience of a vacancy or absence in the world, I argue that they equally express a particular kind of emptiness of the embodied self. Specifically, I propose that feelings of emptiness, following the loss of an intimate other, are the affective expression of a profound constriction in the existential texture of my self-familiarity as rooted in a being-with. After unpacking this idea, I illustrate it in detail through five modalities and point to the existential consequence that bereavement not only implies a need to relearn the world, but a need to the task of relearning myself.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TitelTime and Body : Phenomenological and Psychopathogical Approaches
RedaktørerChristian Tewes, Giovanni Stanghellini
ForlagCambridge University Press
Publikationsdatookt. 2020
Sider125-143
Kapitel7
ISBN (Trykt)9781108489355
ISBN (Elektronisk)9781108776660
DOI
StatusUdgivet - okt. 2020

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