Ambiguous Loss

Published USA, 1999
With sensitivity and lucidity, Boss explores the tumultuous emotions stirred up by unresolved grief, especially the wide fluctuations between hope and hopelessness. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambigious losses and manage to move on, including those who have lost family members to divorce, adoption, addiction, chronic mental illness, immigration and brain injury. 'Frozen sadness', she writes, 'is what we have when we cannot really know what we have lost'.

Pauline Boss is Professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota, USA.
Paperback. 155 pages