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In her poignant memoir In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother's Suicide, Nancy Rappaport eloquently writes of her journey through life following her mother's death. In 1963, when Nancy was only four years old, her mother committed suicide, escaping a highly publicized divorce and a thwarted attempt at regaining custody of her six children. She left a family to deal with the aftermath of her catastrophic decision. Rappaport masterfully navigates the territory of the “unspeakable confusion of loss” (p. 222) of her mother, piecing together what may have occurred using personal interviews, newspaper clippings, and her mother's unpublished semi-autobiographical novel. With keen psychological insight, backed by researched fact, Rappaport grapples with her mother's “unfinished absence” (p. 171), ultimately making enough sense in order to heal.
Researchers have focused most of their efforts on understanding what motivates suicidal behavior. It is only in recent years that efforts have been made to understand the enormous impact a suicide has on those who remain behind. The few studies in this area support the notion that the ramifications of a suicide may differ from the effects of other deaths. Shame, guilt, rejection, and isolation may be experienced more by suicide survivors than by those mourning other deaths. In addition, there is a great deal of trying to “figure things out” (Goode, 2003). Though Rappaport delves into the possible reasons for her mother's suicide, her memoir is far more about the struggles of those left behind. It is an important psychological study of the enormous cost a mother's choice in dying had on those who continued to live.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1969) introduced what have been called the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, going through these stages can be more complicated when mourning the suicide of a loved one. The confusion and the shame that typically surround