PSY321 Wk7 Application Activity

Respond to the following questions in at least one brief paragraph each:

I. In Chapter 6 of Mark Twain’s autobiography, he tells us that after the death of his favored daughter, Susy, who had contracted meningitis, he created an analogy of a house burning down causing an overwhelming sense of loss that takes years to process. He writes:

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I was standing in our dining-room thinking of nothing in particular, when a cablegram was put into my hand. It said, “Susy was peacefully released to-day.”

It is one of the mysteries of our nature that a man, all unprepared, can receive a thunder-stroke like that and live. There is but one reasonable explanation of it. The intellect is stunned by the shock, and but gropingly gathers the meaning of the words. The power to realize their fall import is mercifully wanting. The mind has a dumb sense of vast loss–that is all. It will take mind and memory months, and possibly years, to gather together the details, and thus learn and know the whole extent of the loss. A man’s house burns down. The smoking wreckage represents only a ruined home that was dear through years of use and pleasant associations. By and by, as the days and weeks go on, first he misses this, then that, then the other thing. And, when he casts about for it, he finds that it was in that house. Always it is an essential–there was but one of its kind. It cannot be replaced. It was in that house. It is irrevocably lost. He did not realize that it was an essential when he had it; he only discovers it now when he finds himself balked, hampered, by its absence. It will be years before the tale of lost essentials is complete, and not till then can he truly know the magnitude of his disaster.” PSY321 Wk7 Application Activity

Mark Twain “Chapters From My Autobiography” Chapter 6 OCTOBER 5, 1906

1. What did Mark Twain mean when he said “the mind has a dumb sense of vast loss?”

2. Why did Mark Twain equate the news of Susy’s death to the explicit analogy of a ruined home, smoking wreckage, lost essentials, and disaster?

II. Horowitz’s Model of Loss/Adaptation divides the process of normal grief into the following “stages of loss.” https://www.iccb.org/iccb/wpcontent/pdfs/adulted/healthcare_curriculum/curriculum&resources/context_social_studies/F.%20HC%20Context%20Social%20Studies%20Resource%20File/Death%20and%20Dying%20lesson%20plan.pdf

Outcry. People often get upset when they first realize that they have lost someone important. They may publicly scream and yell; cry and collapse. Alternatively, they may hold their distress inside and not share it with others. Outcry feelings may be suppressed by the person who is feeling them so that the feelings are not felt too strongly, or they may spill out uncontrollably. In any event, initial outcry feelings take a lot of energy to sustain and tend to not last too long.

Denial and Intrusion. As people move past the initial outcry, they will often enter a period characterized by movement between ‘denial’ and ‘intrusion’. This means that people will experience periods where they distract themselves so thoroughly in other activities and thoughts they don’t think about the loss, and periods where the loss is felt very strongly and acutely, perhaps even as intensely as during the initial outcry stage. It is normal for people to bounce between these opposites of engagement and disengagement. People may feel guilty when they realize they are no longer constantly feeling their loss and are able to engage in other activities and emotions, but it is a good thing that this happens. Distraction and disengagement break up the intensity of feeling characteristic of the acute pain of loss so it is more manageable and less overwhelming.

· Working Through. As time goes by (days, weeks, months), the movement between denial (not thinking about or feeling the loss) and intrusion (thinking about and feeling the loss very intensely) tends to slow down and becomes less pronounced, with people spending more time not thinking about or feeling the loss, and less time being overwhelmed by it. During the working through stage, people think about and feel their loss, but also start to figure out new ways to manage without the lost relationship. Such new ways of managing might include preparing to date again (or just starting to think about it), developing new friendships and strengthening existing ones, finding new hobbies, engaging in new projects, etc.

· Completion. At some point in time (months, years), the process of grieving is completed or rather, “completed enough”, so that life has started to feel normal again. While memories remain of what has been lost, the feeling attached to the loss is less painful and no longer regularly interferes with the person’s life. Temporary reactivation of grief feelings may occur on anniversaries important to the lost relationship (marriage and engagement dates, etc.), but such up swellings of hurt feeling tend to be temporary in nature.

1. Take each stage of Horowitz’s loss stages and apply a line from Mark Twain’s quote concerning Susy’s death. In one brief paragraph for each stage, explain why you think Mark Twain had approached that level:

A. Outcry:

B. Denial and Intrusion:

C. Working Through:

D. Completion: