"Wailing lore" in a Yemenite-Israeli community: bereavement, expertise, and therapy.
This study explores Yemenite-Jewish wailing as an example of how a traditional community copes with bereavement in contemporary Israel. Observations of wailing events and interviews with Yemenite-Israeli wailers and mourners are analyzed in order to understand the respondents' perceptions of wailing as a psychotherapeutic expertise and experience. These findings are further used to substantiate a theoretical reconsideration of models of bereavement, exploring the interplay between the modern, self-centered, and detached psychological model (the "clinical lore") and the traditional, other-oriented, and continuous anthropological model (the "wailing lore"). The article concludes by discussing criticisms of the Western psychotherapeutic paradigm as it relates to bereavement and asking where a mourning ritual such as wailing fits into our understanding of the subjective experiences of grief.
Gamliel
Tova
T
Bar-Ilan University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. tovig@netvision.il
D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology*; D002399:Catharsis; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D003448:Crying / Q000523:psychology; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005495:Folklore; D005655:Funeral Rites / Q000523:psychology*; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D024382:Professional Role; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D015006:Yemen / Q000208:ethnology