Abstract
This paper attempts to review critically the major psychoanalytic positions on the impact of parent loss during childhood. An effort is made to review systematically the issues of the loss of a parent as a love object, the loss of a parent as a narcissistic injury, children's cognitive understanding of death, and the relationship between loss and trauma. Two questions are raised by our efforts to understand the impact of the loss of a parent through death on children under ten years of age. First, what psychological tasks do children confront and what modes of coping do they use to deal with such an event? And, second, does such an event invariably lead to some pathological result for the child, or may its effects be normalized in the course of time? Although these questions may be seen as empirical questions needing to be answered through the collection of data that would confirm or negate the hypotheses generated, the questions are always posed within the context of a theoretical framework that colors how data is collected and which data is collected. By reviewing the theoretical positions, we come to the conclusion that no single approach is sufficient to explain the complexity of the impact of the death of a parent on a child. We propose that since no integrated conceptual framework presently encompasses all that needs to be explained, it is necessary to use a multivariant approach. Such an approach may be helpful in generating hypotheses and in beginning the task of systematic data collection.
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The Barr-Harris Center for the Study of Separation and Loss During Childhood of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis was made possible in part by the generous contributions from Mr. George Barr and Mr. Irving Harris. The author was the Administrative Director of the Center from its inception in September of 1976 until June 1978. Portions of this paper were written while the author was in that position.
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Palombo, J. Parent loss and childhood bereavement: some theoretical considerations. Clin Soc Work J 9, 3–33 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757091
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757091