In this scene of the movie, An Unfinished Life, Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and Einar

Question

In this scene of the movie, An Unfinished Life, Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and Einar (Robert Redford) express their mutual pain over the tragic death of Griffin—Einar’s son and Jean’s husband. Obviously, there is a back-story to this particular scene, but it has enough information to demonstrate their struggle with grief. In 150-250 words, provide your reaction/analysis of this scene. I’ll be looking for reference to the stages of grief as discussed by Grunlan (and recently largely confirmed by a 2007 Yale study) and which stage or stages you think are demonstrated in this scene. Feel free to share any personal experiences with grief and how that informed your understanding of the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp6aaQEK5y0

Explanation / Answer

As per the movie one thing is clear that people going through a phase of simmilar emotions bond well and can express genuine empathy. Like sharing of goo brings joy to people, sharing of sadness brings perspective that you are not the only one and can get through this phase combined.

Grunlan's stages of gried are namely Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

In case of the above story both the people are into the third stage, i.e. bargaining as they are sharing each other;s pain.

Yale study confirms validity of long-held 5 stages of grieving

February 22, 2007|Ronald Kotulak | Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — Accepted wisdom says that when a loved one dies, people go through five stages of grieving: disbelief, yearning, anger, depression and acceptance.

Now the first large-scale study of the five stages suggests that they are accurate, and that if a person has not moved through the negative stages after six months, he or she may need professional help to deal with the bereavement.

The study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Assn., also found that, contrary to common belief, yearning or missing a loved one is a more dominant emotion than depression -- meaning mental health experts who treat the grief-stricken may need to refocus on feelings of loss.

"It's important both for clinicians and the average layperson to understand that yearning and not sadness is what bereavement is really all about," said study author Holly G. Prigerson, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of Dana-Farber's Center for Psycho-Oncology and Palliative Care Research.

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