Family characteristics and dynamics: A systems approach to grief

Abstract

This paper addresses the importance of attending to the interplay of one person’s grief with that of another in the context of the family’s relationship to the culture at large, where the individual is embedded in a larger matrix of relationships with others as well with the larger interpersonal and cultural context in which the family is embedded. Viewed systemically, grief may or may not be expressed similarly among family members, based upon the impact of a death on them as well as the meaning they attribute to this death. These intra-family differences are a function of how family members interact and communicate, in part consistent with the developmental phase at which families as intergenerational entities are functioning, wherein developmental shifts in family dynamics may also predict of individual grief over time. The therapeutic and research implications of a systems approach to grief are also discussed here.