Political Grief

Abstract

Grief is usually understood as the personal response to loss. Thus, there is a tendency to consider grief as an individual experience, most typically related to the death of a loved one. However, recent research and theory have provided a much more complex picture of grief as a broad, interdimensional experience that can be both generated and experienced at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. In this context, consideration is given to grief that occurs as a result of events that take place at the sociopolitical level, which can be experienced both individually and collectively. Collective grief may occur when the loss relates to a group where commonly shared assumptions are shattered. The concept of political grief can be seen as a poignant sense of assault to the assumptive world of those who struggle with the ideology and practices of their governing bodies and those who hold political power. Likewise, political grief would also include the direct losses that are experienced by individuals as a result of political policies, ideologies, and oppression enacted and/or empowered at the sociopolitical levels. Different theoretical perspectives, such as the cultural backlash theory, the role of economic inequality within significant sectors, and predictions of the response to threat by terror management theory may help to understand the rise of governments that increase divisions and the sense of loss experienced by large groups within their jurisdiction.