Chronic Sorrow

Susan Roos, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist who has been in private practice for over twenty years. She is a licensed social worker, a board certifed diplomate and a Gestalt therapist.

Preface. Acknowledgments. Foreward. Part I: Introduction. Historical Overview. Chronic Sorrow as a Paradigm Shift. Part II: What is Chronic Sorrow. Proposed Definition. Comparisons and Distinctions. Clinical Significance. Extent of Sorrow of Chronic Sorrow. Proposed Model of Chronic Sorrow. Part III: Interpreting the Loss. Subjectivity of the Loss. Gender Differences. Self-Loss and Other-Loss. Real Loss and Loss of Fantasies. Part IV: Living with Chronic Sorrow. Personal Accounts. Fictionalized Works. Critical Stress Points. Victimization Anxiety. Author's Observations. Part V: Families, Loss, and Chronic Sorrow. The Family Life Cycle. Family Stress and Loss. Family Coping and Adaptation. Siblings. Depleted Caregivers. Part VI: Existential Issues. Disillusionment. Alonenes. Vulnerability. Inequity. Insignificance. Past Temporal Orientation. Mortality. Part VII: Complicating Factors. Stress. Guilt. Identity. Symbiotic Enmeshment. Disordered Intimacy and Attachment. Anger. Depression. Loss Spirals. Part VIII: Professional Support and Treatment. Basic Assumptions. Desirable Professional / Therapist Attribtues. Suggested Goals and Objectives. Hazards and Pitfalls.Part IX: Implications and Directions for Research. Reinterpretation of Existing Studies. Independent Variables. Dependent Variables. Part X: Trends. Professional Education. Shift Toward Depathologizing of Grief. Psychotherapy. Increasing Prevalence of Chronic Sorrow. Epilogue. References. Index.