Culture, Diversity and Development (2): Loss and Transitions in Childhood

Abstract

The previous chapter discussed different transitional experiences in relation to life cycle expectations using the lenses of diversity: in particular, differences arising from ethnicity and gay and lesbian lifestyles. Discourses that may affect the constitution of these lifestyles, such as racism and homophobia, were discussed. Poverty as a socially structured dimension of society that may impact on any lifestyles, and in turn affect children’s development and life cycle expectations, was also flagged up for therapists’ attention. In this chapter the focus is on loss, the absence of intimate experience and some of the subsequent effects on people’s lives as adults and parents.