IN THIS potentially polarising book, Ruth Davis Konigsberg boldly confronts the US’s culture of grieving. Presenting recent research to combat antiquated beliefs, The Truth About Grief seeks to free grievers from prescriptive mourning and to de-stigmatise resilience: it is OK to be OK.
In Konigsberg’s firing line are some of psychology’s most esteemed figures. Notably, she systematically disputes Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s popular theory of the five stages of grief by criticising their meagre empirical origins and even whether they were created by Kubler-Ross at all. Other targets include people and businesses that profit from “teaching” people how to cope with loss.…
