‘An intimate loneliness’: evaluating the impact of a child's death on parental self‐identity and marital relationships

Abstract

Marital relationships may degenerate following a son's or daughter's death. This paper explores ways in which problems of communication between grieving partners may be linked to the challenge which each is facing in reordering their parental self‐narrative. The role which‘talk’plays in constructing and maintaining self‐identity, and the contributions which professional and volunteer support might make in facilitating marital conversation are examined. A brief note is also made of current research upon which this paper is based, commenting on the appropriateness of the narrative technique for collecting emotionally sensitive field‐data.