Bereavement, pathos , and clinical psychology: a phenomenological reading

Abstract

The comprehension of bereavement has undergone profound changes in its theoretical and practical aspects, with relevant repercussions in the recent version of DSM. Not only the cultural context but also the clinical psychology has profoundly impacted its understanding. Phenomenological-existential psychology studies the phenomena as lived experiences in the world, contributing with the thought on the experiential and pathic character of bereavement. This study aims to present bereavement in this perspective, and its implications for clinical psychology. When we submit the phenomenon of bereavement to epoché, we find evidence of intersubjectivity. It is an experience that begins with the abrupt suppression of the other as corporeality, which breaks the habitual meanings of the life-world. In the face of meaning suspension, it is proposed that the clinical setting allows the resumption and re-signification of the interrupted narratives, against a new life-world opened on the outside of the horizon of theoretical predeterminations.