Ambiguous Loss

Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief

By: Pauline Boss PhD

Narrated by: Rosemary Benson

Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

When a loved one dies, we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss?

In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives.

©1999 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2021 Tantor

Very helpful

My mom has Alzheimer’s and this book has been the most helpful thing I’ve read.

a very solid piece

as a counselor, I found this to be thorough. as a general person, I found it to be easy to read and I think it will be very helpful to several in my life and Counseling practice

Great resource- needs more

This is a great beginning it would be wonderful to have an updated version, to include non-binary pronouns, Queer family voices, especially to represent lived experiences of adoptees is significantly more so transracial adoptees TRA.

An incredibly helpful book!

The concept of ambiguous loss has been a game changer for me. And this book is written for a general audience, with lots of helpful and interesting anecdotes. It works well as an audiobook.

Helpful and yet...

Very helpful anecdotally yet very dry in the presentation. Feel more informed, though, and empowered in how I'm handling my own ambiguous loss.

Simple and powerful

Pauline does a wonderful job discussing ambiguous loss through stories and case studies. I am grateful to have read this book, it will help me significantly.

Clear and insightful

This book does an excellent job of exploring how we deal with the stress of losing a loved one slowly, when they are present but not present. She points to ways we can find relief and I have found it very interesting.