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How to Help a Loved One Through Sudden Loss
Over the past several years, the husbands of three of my friends died suddenly at the age of 50. These experiences helped educate me on how to be supportive in the face of an unexpected loss. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever be on the receiving end of such support. But that happened when I lost my son, Garrett, to suicide in September 2017. Since Garrett’s passing, I have been amazed at the generosity of my community. One friend paid to have my home’s gutters cleaned and windows washed. Our family’s veterinarian refused to let us pay for her pet care services for a year. Another friend gave us keys to her lake house to use when we needed to get away.
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New Research in Psychological Science
A sample of research on the development of political attitudes, dominant leaders, sustained stress and aging, gender gaps in self-presentation, the neural representations of romantic partners, facial impressions, cognitive conflict and aging, and refugees’ identity.
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How Disgust Explains Everything
Two distinguished academics walk into a restaurant in Manhattan. It is their first meeting — their first date, in fact — and the year is 2015. The man wears a down jacket against the icy winter evening. The woman has a shock of glossy white hair. The restaurant is on a cozy corner of the West Village and has foie gras on the menu. What the man doesn’t know is that the interior of his down jacket has suffered a structural failure, and the filling has massed along the bottom hem, forming a conspicuous bulge at his waist. As they greet each other, the woman perceives the bulge and asks herself: Is my date wearing a colostomy bag? They sit down to eat, but the woman is distracted.
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Borderline Personality Disorder May Be Rooted in Trauma
Two winters ago, after a spell of burnout landed her in the hospital, Ann began having disturbing dreams. Visions of her father turned into distressing flashbacks from her childhood—scenes of physical and psychological abuse. A single mother of three daughters, Ann, whose name has been changed for privacy, grew up a town in eastern Germany, an hour’s drive from the country’s capital, Berlin. She spent her childhood surrounded by alcoholics, including her father and her grandfather. After school, she would often return to an empty house, and she found no comfort when her parents came home. Both her mother and father were violent, physically and emotionally.
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New Content From Perspectives on Psychological Science
A sample of articles on evolutionary psychology, longitudinal research, climate change, social media an well-being during the pandemic, the importance of olfaction for relaxation, risk surveys, reduction of social inequalities, and research on gender and sex.
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How Your Brain Copes with Grief, and Why it Takes Time to Heal
Holidays are never quite the same after someone we love dies. Even small aspects of a birthday or a Christmas celebration — an empty seat at the dinner table, one less gift to buy or make — can serve as jarring reminders of how our lives have been forever changed. Although these realizations are hard to face, clinical psychologist Mary-Frances O'Connor says we shouldn't avoid them or try to hide our feelings. "Grief is a universal experience," she notes, "and when we can connect, it is better." O'Connor, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, studies what happens in our brains when we experience grief.
