Suicide Grief: News & Comment

The Scranton Times-Tribune ran a feature yesterday that aptly portrays the impact one caregiver is having in the aftermath of suicide in her community. In "Therapist on Front Lines of Suicide," staff writer Chris Kelly tells the story of Jean Rosencrance, Director of Trauma Services for the Lackawanna County District Attorney's Office, who is responsible for death notifications.

Ms. Rosencrance wears many hats. She counsels victims, survivors and police, fire and emergency personnel, is a SWAT team negotiator and a terrorism threat analyst. She is also a mom to three teenagers, and as much as her years of training and experience, it is that job that qualifies her to knock on the doors of homes that will be broken by what she has to say.

The recent Time magazine article, "New Ways to Think About Grief," counters what its author, Ruth Davis Konigsberg, considers to be five myths of grief, an obvious twist on the "five stages of grief" popularized by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross more than 40 years ago (and which is first on her list of "myths").

The article is based on Konigsberg's new book, The Truth about Grief, which has prompted scrutiny from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), and a mixed response from ADEC Past President Robert Neimeyer, a preeminent expert on grief whose research is referenced in the Time article and in The Truth about Grief. In fact, Neimeyer and fellow researcher Joseph Currier take the position that Konigsberg's view of the value of grief counseling (see Myth No. 5, below) tells only half of the truth.