'Insightful and refreshing. ' - Professor Dennis Klass Webster University Religion Department St. Louis USA 'A tour de force. ' - Dr Colin Murray Parkes OBE MD FRCPsych President of CRUSE Some societies and some individuals find a place for their dead others leave them behind. In recent years researchers professionals and bereaved people themselves have struggled with this. Should the bond with the dead be continued or broken? What is clear is that the grieving individual is not left in a social vacuum but has to struggle with expectations from self family friends professionals and academic theorists. This ground-breaking book looks at the social position of the bereaved. They find themselves caught between the living and the dead sometimes searching for guidelines in a de-ritualized society that has few to offer sometimes finding their grief inappropriately pathologised and policed. At its best bereavement care offers reassurance validation and freedom to talk where the client has previously encountered judgmentalism. In this unique book Tony Walter applies sociological insights to one of the most personal of human situations. On Bereavement is aimed at students on medical nursing counselling and social work courses that include bereavement as a topic. It will also appeal to sociology students with an interest in death dying and mortality. Language: English