Courtesy of LossesInTranslation.com |By Michael Morris Cohn 09.07.2010
Types of Losses
Immigration
These losses are usually profound, involving as they do so many of life’s anchors and stabilisers. The typically involve losses of status, family roots, financial certainty, losses of support systems, losses of identity, losses of friendships, losses of language, losses of things known and self-evident, losses of cultural identities and certainties, losses of self-image and the like.
Physical Losses
These are losses which arise from serious illness such as heart attacks, or diagnoses which augur significant changes to a person’s life, losses of limbs or other bodily functions such as sight, hearing, mobility and so on. Included in this heading are losses resulting from significant changes in weight, significant changes in physical appearance, the loss of youth and vigour and, finally, losses which result from aging. The losses attendant upon aging encompass both the physical losses of aging – failing organs, impotence and other dysfunctional syndromes, as well as the psychological adjustments needed to face mortality and death.
Relationship Losses
These losses result from divorce or relationship break-up, losses which result from children leaving home (the empty nest syndrome), losses with the end of intimate friendships resulting from disagreements or immigration or death, and, finally, changes in family and social connections due to geographical moves (see above under immigration).
Psychological Losses
Of course, all losses are encapsulated under the rubric of psychological losses but it is worth mentioning here, losses of working career resulting from loss of job following retrenchment, or following company relocation, forced retraining, taking early retirement, immigration, or from any other similar type of circumstance.
Dying & Death Talk 