Ambiguous loss - Dr. Pauline Boss

Dr. Pauline Boss

Ambiguous loss is a term coined by Pauline Boss, the professor who wrote several books on this problem, including The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic.

She has also appeared on programs like NPR's On Being with Krista Tippett (see link). 

See her brief introduction to the subject in a video on YouTube.

The term "closure" implies acceptance of a definite loss.  

An open-ended feeling of loss can be easier to bear, a protection from finality: "He or she is gone, but not for sure."  Or it can be harder, haunting.

"The tolerance of ambiguity is what we are trying to increase," Dr. Boss says. 

Some of her central points: 

😔Sadness and even the condition of complicated grief are different from major depression.

😔"Sadness is treated with human connection." 

😔Grief is complex and varying, not something that comes in a prescribed number of stages or in a linear timeline.

Thank you to my friend Letha Dawson Scanzoni for calling the work of Pauline Boss to my attention.