Grief Adaptation as Deflection Resolution

A key sociological concern about grief is the context in which the individual tries to make sense of their loss (Charmaz and Milligan, 2006). Whether the emphasis is on relationships (Carr & Boerner, 2009), reactions of others (Clark, 1997), or labels given to the emotion (Horwitz & Wakefield, 2007), grief is embedded in interactions which give it meaning. Building on this contextual view, this qualitative exploration of caregiver narratives of bereavement uses the Evaluation, Potency and Activity dimensions of Affect Control Theory (ACT) (Heise, 2012) to show how individuals make sense of bereavement. The data for this study are comprised of 50 semi-structured interviews with bereaved cancer caregivers, 12-24 months after the death. Interviews were 1-3 hours long, recorded and transcribed, then coded using both in vivo and protocol coding (Miles et al., 2014). Results showed that participants treated the death of a loved one as a deflection from the expected sentiments about the deceased, and redefined the act of dying to resolve those deflections. Common resolutions included attributing power over the time of dying, power of the caregiver to release the deceased from suffering, and weakness of others in allowing the untimely death. These results add to the literature on grief in highlighting the agency of actors in managing their grief by cognitively manipulating situational definitions to convert the event of dying into a validation of their identities and relationships.