this issue
previous article in this issuenext article in this issue

Document Details :

Title: Converting Mortal Losses into Vital Gains
Subtitle: 'Could be worse'...
Author(s): HUTCH, Richard A.
Journal: Studies in Spirituality
Volume: 10    Date: 2000   
Pages: 51-65
DOI: 10.2143/SIS.10.0.505260

Abstract :
Grief and its management constitute the general topic of this paper. A personal dynamic of reframing is articulated nd defined as a major experiental source of human spirituality. The argument is that execises in the comparative free association of loss activate dynamic reframing amidst mourning and its associated work of depression. Counseling that involves imagining 'worst case scenarios' may invoke conventional religious belief and practice as constructive 'tactics of make-believe', ones that actuallyenlarge perspective and cast past lossesinto widening horizons of future gains. In effect, human spirituality is an individual's achieved capacity to affirm time and again that his or her great personal losses could have been far worse, in spite of the emotional turmoil and woe surrounding such events.

Download article