Breakup, Divorce, and Bereavement by Hendrich Essay
The article under discussion is Breakup, Divorce, and Bereavement by Hendrich. In his article the author using a typical example of family case overviews, analyzes and explains in a plain and understandable way the essence of such phenomena of relationship losses as breakup, divorce as one of its significant subtypes, and bereavement. All three topics described by the author are very similar and have a lot in common, but at the same time they have very peculiar features which need to be presented and discussed separately, as they have different manifestations and affect people’s feelings, physical and mental health in different ways.
In general, in our opinion, the article is very relevant in modern society and can be considered useful because it lets the reader see the phenomena that take place in many families around him or even in his own family from different sides and understand it better; the article might help a reader to put the emotional part of these problems aside and analyze the causes, the consequences and the possible solutions, or ways to recover after the certain event.
In our opinion, the main point of the author was to help the audience better understand themselves and their nearest ones who have experiences the mentioned events before, or are experiencing them now (girlfriends and boyfriends, wives and husbands, parents who are divorcing, or their children, widows and widowers, etc.). At the same time the author helps such people to see that they are not alone in their troubles, that
We believe that one of the most significant parts of the article is the listing of “Stages of Relationship Dissolution” (pp.171-172), where the author describes the situations typical of relationships at different periods of development which eventually lead to breakup (break-down, intrapsychic phase, dyadic phase, social phase, grave-dressing phase). This part can make a reader think about one’s own relationships and pay more attention to seemingly trivial or unimportant conflicts, and in case if someone recognizes himself in one of these stages, it may help avoid the further dissolution and save a relationship or a family.
On the one hand, the article is mostly informative and analytical, giving statistical data on divorces, results of numerous researches, opinions of various respected psychologists and family therapists, but not giving any advice as to how to avoid a breakup, or recover after bereavement. On the other hand, however, with so many common points each relationship is unique and there can be no universal advice for everyone, so it is up to the reader to decide how to build and preserve one’s own family.
