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Losses in Later Life

A New Way of Walking with God, Second Edition

• By Richard L. Dayringer, R Scott Sullender

• Price: $24.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 206
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 23rd June 1999
• ISBN: 978-0-7890-0628-8

About the Book

Achieve faith and understanding when dealing with the loss of a loved one or a major change in your life!

Losses in Later Life: A New Way Of Walking with God, Second Edition, focuses on seven major losses: loss of youth, loss of family, loss of parents, loss of work, loss of spouse, loss of health, and loss of identity. This second edition has been reworked with new research to include updated information about the loss of independence and several additional losses not discussed in the previous edition. You will explore the path to becoming a spiritually mature person who has faith and is able to grieve, let go, and release what is lost in order to live a mentally healthy and rewarding life.

With this valuable book, you will explore the issues of losses in later life from an approach that integrates psychology and spirituality to help you understand that loss is an inevitable and significant factor in the lives of people over the age of 40. Discussing the dynamics of loss and grief and defining spiritual health, Losses in Later Life examines the seven most common losses of the second half of your life from a positive perspective. Some of the areas you will read about include:

• spiritual health and grief
• the process of grieving
• abnormal and unhealthy grief such as worshipping a deceased person or other loss in a way that mimics the worship of a god
• marker events such as changing careers, the loss of dreams, and the loss of youth
• feeling you have a limited amount of time left
• finding new meanings of “old” and learning to embrace the present
• spiritual and psychological understanding for the loss of children to death or adulthood, the loss of parents, and the loss of a spouse

Caregivers and anyone interested in the psychology and spirituality of aging will find excellent help and suggestions from Losses in Later Life. This book is a necessary tool for spiritually assisting your times of grief and confusion. With proven suggestions and advice, Losses in Later Life serves to enlighten your path through the later years and enrich your soul.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface

• Introduction to the Second Edition
• Chapter 1. The Grief Dynamic
• Grief’s Pain and Its Defenses
• The Process of Grieving
• Grief and Meaning
• Grief in Later Life
• Loss Is Subjective
• Chapter 2. Spiritual Health and Grief
• Making Gods
• Temporary Gods
• Gods You Can Touch
• False Promises
• A Cadre of Slaves
• God Seeks After Us
• Idolatry and Abnormal Grief
• Spiritual Health in Later Life
• Chapter 3. The Loss of Youth
• The Changes of the Body
• Marker Events
• The Changing Career
• Loss of Dreams
• Eschatology and Loss
• Society’s Pervasive Influence
• Finding Positive Meanings for “Old”
• Embracing the Present
• Chapter 4. The Loss of Family
• A Complexity of Emotions
• The Process Character of This Loss
• Ambivalent Feelings
• The Wounded Parents
• Variations on the Theme
• The Physiological Component
• The Passage to the Empty Nest
• From Children to Friends
• New Possibilities for Caring
• Chapter 5. The Loss of Parents
• The Aging Parent
• Aging Brings Changes
• The Slow Death
• The Ignored Grief
• Guilt in Grief
• Baggage from the Past
• Can’t Go Home Again
• New Identity, New Life Stage
• Chapter 6. The Loss of Work
• The Changing Face of Retirement
• Retirement and the Meaning of Work
• The Loss of Status
• Loss of Friends
• Retirement and the Idolization of Work
• Doing and Being
• Theology of Work and Play
• New Challenge: A Ritual for Retirement
• Chapter 7. The Loss of Spouse
• The Multifaceted Loss
• Feminization of Death
• The Unexpected Loss
• Loss by Divorce
• Loneliness
• Learning to Reach Out
• Learning Self-Sufficiency
• Avoid Making Idols
• Changing Identities
• Letting Go, Again
• Chapter 8. The Loss of Health
• The First Experience of This Loss
• Changing Our Assumptions About Life
• Responses to the Loss of Health
• Health and Salvation
• The Loss of Major Body Functions
• Chronic Health Problems
• Transcending the Body
• The Value of Being Handicapped
• Chapter 9. The Loss of Independence
• Loss of Home
• Residential Changes As a Function of Independence
• Loss of Mobility
• Clinging to Lost Independence
• Loss of Financial Security
• Loss of Control
• A Culture of Independence
• Letting Go, to Receive
• The Value of Surrender
• Chapter 10. Faith and Successful Aging
• The Final Loss
• Avoiding Pain
• Learning to Suffer Well
• Faith As the Trust
• Faith Is Letting Go
• Idolatry and Avoiding Grief
• Successful Aging
• Faith and Aging Well
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Reference Notes Included