Closure

Nancy Berns is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Drake University in Des Moines. Her teaching and research interests are in areas of grief, death, violence, justice, and social constructionism. She is the author of Framing the Victim: Domestic Violence, Media and Social Problems.

"[C]ompelling...Berns, who experienced a profound loss when she gave birth to a stillborn son, is here to reinforce what most of us intuitively know: feeling bad about losing a loved one never really ends. By commodifying the concept of closure in order to sell products and services, however, society has put pressure on us to conform to the prevailing 'feeling rules,' suggesting that disappointment, loss, and grief can and should come to an arbitrary end. Berns angrily dismisses this notion... VERDICT Berns wisely counsels us to find other language and perspectives for living with grief, and this lucid debunking of the current use of the word 'closure' is a breath of fresh air, recommended for both general readers and specialists." -Library Journal

• Preface: My Own Tangled Story Acknowledgments 1. Seeking Closure 2. Closure and Its Tangled Meanings 3. The Walking Wounded and Myth Slayers: Those Who Say There Is No Closure 4. From Embalming to Teddy Bear Urns: Selling Closure in the Twenty-First-Century Death Care Industry 5. The Assurance Business: Creating Worry and Selling Closure 6. Bury the Jerk: Symbolic Death and Mock Vengeance as Relationship Advice 7. Should You Watch an Execution or Forgive a Murderer? Closure Talk and Death Penalty Politics 8. Forgetting versus Remembering: Politics of Mourning, Sacred Space, and Public Memory 9. Framing Grief beyond Closure Notes Bibliography Index