Unresolved Grief and Continuing Bonds - an Attachment Perspective

UNRESOLVED GRIEF AND CONTINUING BONDS:

AN ATTACHMENT PERSPECTIVE

NIGEL P. FIELD

Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto, California, USA

Much of the contemporary bereavement literature on the continuing bond to the

deceased (CB) has emphasized its adaptiveness and given limited attention to

when it may be maladaptive. The attachment literature on disorganized-

unresolved attachment classification in relation to loss, or ''unresolved loss,'' is

informative in identifying CB expressions that are indicative of failure to

integrate the death of a loved one. In this article, an important linkage is identified

between a prominent indicator of unresolved loss that involves a lapse in the

monitoring of reasoning implying disbelief that the person is dead and the clinical

writings of J. Bowlby (1980) and V. D. Volkan (1981) on maladaptive variants

of CB expression. The aim is to highlight the value of the attachment literature on

unresolved loss in clarifying the conditions under which CB is likely to be

maladaptive.

There is increasing agreement among bereavement theorists and

practitioners that an ongoing attachment to the deceased can be

an integral part of successful adaptation to bereavement (Klass,

Silverman, & Nickman, 1996). This position, commonly known

as the ''continuing bonds'' perspective, is counter to that presented

by Freud (1917=1957) in his classic work ''Mourning and Melancholia,''

in which he proposed that successful adaptation to loss

required the bereaved to detach his or her psychic investment in

the deceased, or ''relinquish'' his or her attachment to the

deceased, in order to complete the mourning process.

Much of the bereavement literature on the continuing bond to

the deceased (CB) has emphasized its adaptiveness while paying

minimal attention to conditions under which it may be maladaptive

(Fraley & Shaver, 1999). Despite its value in identifying CB

as a normative aspect of bereavement adjustment, and its positive

Address correspondence to Nigel P. Field, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 935

East Meadow Dr., Palo Alto, CA 95006. E-mail: nfield@pgsp.edu

739

Death Studies, 30: 739-756, 2006

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0748-1187 print/1091-7683 online

DOI: 10.1080/07481180600850518

Downloaded By: [USC University of Southern California] At: 22:52 13 November 2009

impact in drawing attention to the importance of interventions that

serve to promote such an inner bond (e.g., Neimeyer, 2001), the

CB literature also may have had some unfortunate consequences

in ignoring possible maladaptive variants of CB expression. In fact,

there is a tendency among those who advocate the adaptiveness of

CB to summarily dismiss classic work in the bereavement literature

that identify maladaptive CB expressions, such as the writings of

Volkan (1981) and Bowlby (1980), on grounds that these theorists

have embraced the Freudian (1917=1957) relinquishment perspective

(Silverman & Klass, 1996). In this article, I will attempt to show

how there is noteworthy overlap between some of the clinical

insights of these classic writings with empirical findings in contemporary

adult attachment literature on unresolved=disorganized

states of mind with respect to loss, hereafter referred to as ''unresolved

loss,'' in terms of their implications for the maladaptive

use of CB.

In a previous paper, my colleagues and I introduced an

attachment theory-based framework for distinguishing adaptive

versus maladaptive CB expressions (Field, Gao, & Paderna,

2005). Here, we attempted to point out how this perspective is

informative in identifying the kinds of changes that occur in the

representation of the relationship with the deceased in the normative

course of bereavement that allows for a continuing tie to the

deceased while satisfying what is required in accommodating to

the loss. This work also provided a means for distinguishing successful

versus maladaptive ways of maintaining CB. The present

article extends this previous work in introducing the reader to

the attachment literature on unresolved loss and its relevance in

identifying maladaptive CB.

Attachment Theory Perspective on Successful

Mourning

According to Bowlby, healthy mourning occurs when an individual

accepts ''both that a change has occurred