Ambiguous Loss & Dr. Pauline Boss
All of us have experienced a wide range of loss and grief from the last 2 years of life under a pandemic. In this second installment of our focus on Grief and Loss, host Lisa Laudico speaks with leading social scientist, family therapist, professor, and writer Dr. Pauline Boss about all of her research and her latest book, The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic & Change. Dr. Boss has extended the lens of her groundbreaking research to the world we live in today. This is another episode that has something for everyone – not just those of us living with MBC or a terminal diagnosis. It is a privilege to listen to Dr. Boss speak and teach.
This type of interview will now be part of our new, “Our MBC Bookshelf” series that will highlight the authors and books who make a difference in our lives. If you have an author whom you would like us to interview – drop us a line.
Finally, we have launched a new version of our very popular Dash of Joy – this season we want to hear your little dashes of joy and we will play them in future episodes. Moments of joy do not have to be (maybe shouldn’t be?) big splashy insta moments but the big and small real moments of joy that help us each day to have some lightness in our heart even when life feels so hard. Listen here for Dar Finkelstein’s introduction of this new mini segment this season.
Meet the Guests of this Episode
Pauline Boss, Ph.D.
Pauline Boss, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, family therapist, is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and a former president of the National Council on Family Relations.
With her groundbreaking work in research and practice, Dr. Boss coined the term ambiguous loss in the 1970s and since then, developed and tested the theory of ambiguous loss, a guide for working with families of the missing, physically or psychologically. She summarized this research and clinical work in her widely acclaimed book, Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief (Harvard University Press, 2000).
In addition to over 100 peer reviewed academic articles and chapters, her other books include Loss, Trauma, and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss (W. W. Norton, 2006) and Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Her most recent book is The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change (W. W. Norton, 2022).
Her work is known around the world wherever ambiguous losses occur, and thus her books are now available in 18 different languages. For more information about Dr. Boss, her writings, and the ambiguous loss online training program, see www.ambiguousloss.com.
