Complicated Grief, Attachment, and Art Therapy. Группа авторов

list of various arts-based assessments goes on, and there are many existing texts that explore this topic, beyond the scope of this book. Additionally, emerging paradigms in this area attempt to address disorders of extreme stress that are resistant to change, like C-PTSD, through the frame of attachment and neuroscience. Hass-Cohen and Findlay (2015) expand upon this in their Art Therapy Relational-Neuroscience (ATR-N) approach, which is described in greater detail in Chapter 5.

      In sum, the impact of trauma and abuse on grief feelings relies upon the severity of the trauma and abuse, the context in which it occurred, the age at which the trauma and abuse occurred, the resulting attachment style, and a comprehensive understanding of underlying developmental factors (pertaining to both the age at which a developmental arrestment might have occurred, and the developmental phase in which the client currently examines it).

      References

      Bowlby, J. (1980) Attachment and Loss. Vol III. Loss, Sadness and Depression. New York: Basic Books.

      Bradshaw, J. (1990) Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing your Inner Child. New York: Bantum Books.

      Burns, R.C. and Kaufman, S.H. (1970) Kinetic Family Drawings (K-F-D): An Introduction to Understanding Children through Kinetic Drawings. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

      DiLeo, J.H. (1983) Interpreting Children’s Drawings. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

      Freed, P.J. and Mann, J.J. (2007) ‘Sadness and loss: Toward a neurobiopsychosocial model.’ American Journal of Psychiatry 164, 1, 28–94.

      Halpern, H. (1982) How to Break Your Addiction to a Person. New York: Bantam Books.

      Hass-Cohen, N. and Findlay, J.C. (2015) Art Therapy and the Neuroscience of Relationships, Creativity, and Resiliency: Skills and Practices. New York: W.W. Norton.

      Hughes, V. (2011) ‘Shades of grief: When does mourning become a mental illness?’ Scientific American, June 1. Available at www.scientificamerican.com/article/shades-of-grief, accessed on November 16, 2016.

      Kersting, A., Brähler, E., Glaesmer, H. and Wagner, B. (2011) ‘Prevalence of complicated grief in a representative population-based sample.’ Journal of Affective Disorders 131, 1–3, 339–343.

      King-West, E. and Hass-Cohen, N. (2008) ‘Art therapy, neuroscience and complex PTSD.’ In N. Hass-Cohen and R. Carr (eds) Art Therapy and Clinical Neuroscience. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

      Koppitz, E. (1968) Psychological Evaluation of Children’s Human Figure Drawings. New York: Grune & Stratton.

      Lowenfield, V. (1957) Creative and Mental Growth. Third edition. New York: Macmillan.

      Malchiodi, M., Kim, D., and Choi, W. (2003) ‘Developmental art therapy.’ In C. Malchiodi (ed.) The Handbook of Art Therapy. New York: Guilford Press.

      Mancini, A.D., Prati, G., and Black, S. (2011) ‘Self-worth mediates the effects of violent loss on PTSD symptoms.’ Journal of Traumatic Stress 24, 1, 116–120.

      Murphy, S.A., Braun, T., Tillery, L., Cain, K.C., Johnson, L.C., and Beaton, R.D. (1999) ‘PTSD among bereaved parents following the violent deaths of their 12- to 28-year-old children: A longitudinal prospective analysis.’ Journal of Traumatic Stress 12, 2, 273–291.

      Murphy, S.A., Johnson, L.C., Wu, L, Fan, J.J., Lohan, and J. (2003) ‘Bereaved parents’ outcomes 4 to 60 months after their children’s deaths by accident, suicide, or homicide: A comparative study demonstrating differences.’ Death Studies, 27, 39–61.

      Nakajima, S., Masaya, I., Akemi, S., and Takako, K. (2012) ‘Complicated grief in those bereaved by violent death: The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on complicated grief.’ Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 14, 2, 210–214.

      Norris, F.H. (1992) ‘Epidemiology of trauma: Frequency and impact of different potentially traumatic events on different demographic groups.’ Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60, 409–418.

      O’Connor, M.-F., Wellisch, D.K., Stanton, A.L., Eisenberger, N.I., Irwin, M.R., and Lieberman, M.D. (2008) ‘Craving love? Enduring grief activates brain’s reward center.’ NeuroImage 42, 2, 969–972.

      Peele, S. and Brodsky, A. (1975) Love and Addiction. New York: Taplinger Publishing.

      Raphael, B., Martinek, N., and Wooding, S. (2004) ‘Assessing traumatic bereavement.’ In J.P. Wison and T.M. Keane (eds) Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD. Second edition. New York: Guilford Press.

      Rynearson, E.K. (2001) Retelling Violent Death. New York: Taylor & Francis.

      Shear, K., Monk, T., Houck, P., Melhem, N., et al. (2007) ‘An attachment-based model of complicated grief including the role of avoidance.’ European Archives of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience 257, 8, 453–461.

      Shear, M.K., Simon, N., Wall, M., Zisook, S., et al. (2011) ‘Complicated grief and related bereavement issues for DSM-5.’ Depression and Anxiety 28, 2, 103–117.

      Tyson, P. and Tyson, R. (1990) Psychoanalytic Theories of Development: An Integration. New York: Vail-Ballou Press.

      Williams, G. and Wood, M. (1977) Developmental Art Therapy. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.

4

      The Impact of Culture and Community

      Briana MacWilliam, Anne Briggs, Maya Rose Hormadaly, and Dana George Trottier

      Cultural influences

      Culture and grief

      A white, middle-class, female student of mine approached me one day with a clinical concern. She worked primarily with black children of varied ethnic backgrounds, ages 11 to 13, in an urban, school-based setting. Her client was a young girl whose father had passed away the previous year. In a recent art therapy session, the normally defensive and reticent little girl had finally opened up to my student, describing the events of her father’s funeral. In particular, she noted feeling overwhelmed and fearful of the dramatic, emotional outbursts of her aunties. One auntie had even flung herself on the coffin, requiring several male family members to tear her off of it. My student’s concern was that the young girl had created outlandish memories as a way of using fantasy to dissociate herself from the painful feelings of her father’s loss. She feared this might impede the little girl’s ability to successfully navigate the grieving process.

      I smiled softly, touching my student’s hand, “You’ve never been to a black funeral, have you?” Indeed, she hadn’t.

      In an article entitled “The difference between white funerals and black funerals” a black, South African, male author offers an anecdotal account of the ways in which white people and black people grieve. The nuances he describes are hard to measure and qualify through empirical research and study, but are frequently observed and appreciated through the frame of humor.

      The first time I attended a white person’s funeral, I thought I had landed on another planet. The service was meant to start at 9am and by 8:45am everyone was seated, all 27 of us. At promptly 9am, the organ started and everyone rose. Besides the priest, three other people spoke for about three minutes each. Around 9:30am, things were wrapped up and the family proceeded to the crematorium while we went outside to the lawn and grabbed some sandwiches. By 10:15am I was back at my desk at work as if nothing had happened.

      Oh no, not our funerals… The first big event on the day of the funeral is when the casket is brought out of the house and the mourners can fully appreciate it in its glory. There’s always that aunt who takes out a hanky, dabs at her eyes and murmurs approvingly, “At least my uncle’s child is going to rest inside a beautiful ‘house’. It must have cost at least 80k.” Towards the end of the whole rigmarole comes the most dramatic part, the viewing of the body. There is always some woman—a cousin of the deceased, thrice removed—who waits until everyone has seen the body before she approaches. She’s