Abstract

In the aftermath of life-changing bereavement, one’s self, as the landscape of mind inhabited by a multiplicity of I-positions (Hermans, 2001), can become a desolate terrain where, together with the loved one, the features of a once familiar self and world may be eroded, shattered, or seemingly lost altogether. Viewing identity from the plural point of view of Dialogical Self Theory (DST; Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010), we have observed how mourners can lose valued aspects of themselves that were anchored in the centrally important attachment relationship with the deceased.