Grief for lost relationships — ambiguous loss of divorce

The grief of divorce and significant estrangement is complicated by the fact that the person is not dead — they still exist in the world, possibly in proximity, possibly in dispute — and yet the relationship that existed is genuinely gone. Pauline Boss named this experience ambiguous loss: a grief without the social recognition or the finality that comes with death. This domain examines this particular form of grief and what it asks that ordinary mourning does not.