AMBIGUOUS LOSS

Frozen sadness this is what we have when we cannot really know what we have lost. And this is what Pauline Boss illuminates, and helps to ease, in Ambiguous Loss, an original and humane account of the ravages of uncertainty faced when we loss a loved one through divorce, adoption, addiction, chronic mental illness, immigration, or Alzheimer's. With sensitivity and lucidiry, Boss explores the rumulruous emotions stirred up by such losses, especially the wide flustuation between hope and hopelessness. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and offers heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous losses and manage to move on. "A compassionate explotation of the effects of ambiguous loss and how those experiencing it handle this most devas tating of losses... Boss's approach is to encourage families to talk together, to reach a consensus about how to mourn that which has been lost and how to celebrate that which remains. Her simple stories of families doing just that contain lessons for all. Insightful. practical, and refreshingly free of psychobabble.'' Kirkus Revictus "Combining her talenta as a compassionate family therapist and a creative researcher, Pauline Boss eloquently shows the many and complex ways that people can cope with the inevitable losses in contemporary family life. A wise book, and certain to become a classic.'' Constance R. Ahrons, author of The Good Divorce Pauline Boss is Professor of Family Social at the University of Minnesota, past President of the National Council on Family Relations, and a psychotherapist in private practice.