Acts of resistance: breaking the silence of grief following traffic crash fatalities.
Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence demonstrate the limited utility of a narrow construction of "normal" grief. Sudden and violent death, the young age of the deceased, and perceptions of death preventability are associated with grief reactions that extend beyond an expected grief response. Interviews were conducted with 21 adults bereaved through the death of a family member in a traffic crash. We present their attempts to resist notions of "working through" grief and "recovery" from it and consider how the participants' constructions of an alternative discourse, or normative narrative, possess the potential to challenge a prevailing grief discourse.
Social Justice Research Centre, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia. l.breen@ecu.edu.au
Lauren J
LJ
Breen
Western Australian Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Moira
M
O'Connor
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology*; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012944:Social Support; D055815:Young Adult