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The loss of a parent permanently changes the life of a child. It is considered one of the most adverse childhood challenges a child might experience. Indeed, in Western societies the effects of death on a child have not received adequate attention. However, in a contemporary nuclear family, the loss of a parent is more traumatic than in the traditional extended families of past generations. In the former, most parents try to protect their children from any comprehension of death and dying. As Erna Furman (1974) has noted, only in childhood does death deprive a person of so much opportunity to love and be loved, and pose such a difficult task of adaptation.
In When a Child Grieves: Psychoanalytic Understanding and Technique, Corinne Masur takes on on topics that remain difficult to broach. The book is both a personal account and a comprehensively researched study of childhood bereavement after losing a parent. Masur shares her own experience of parental loss and examines her inner life to offer an authentic perspective on childhood bereavement. The book, unique in the child analytic literature, focuses on understanding children who, suddenly facing the death of a parent or the loss of loved ones, are tossed into an unknown universe of grief. The loss of a parent is devastating, and each child has a unique way of reacting to the loss.
The book's Part I, “Theory,” addresses the history and theoretical underpinnings of the study of bereavement, explores the meanings and developmental themes of childhood bereavement and mourning, and examines children's capacity to understand death. Part II addresses the clinical challenges of treating childhood bereavement. There Masur presents case examples and elaborates on important clinical moments of contact with the therapist.
Masur offes a comprehensive review of psychoanalytic and developmental perspectives, historical and current, on children of different ages
who face the loss of a parent or other significant attachment figure