21 - Reconstructing the self in the wake of loss: a dialogical contribution

Summary

This chapter draws on three strands of inspiration, concerned with meaning making, narrative and the dialogical self, braiding these together into a flexible and durable strand of coherence that runs through the author's therapy, and supports a great variety of novel interventions. It briefly sketches the landscape of loss as viewed through the contemporary scientific literature, in order to frame the field to which a dialogical, meaning-oriented model makes a distinctive contribution. From a constructivist standpoint, grieving for the death of a loved one entails reaffirming or reconstructing a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss. The chapter introduces the idea to Daniel of considering his life as a book, and asked if he would be willing to spend some time between sessions writing the table of contents of that life to capture its plot developments, including the accident and his subsequent adaptation.