The pragmatics of bereavement

In keeping with the Freudian heritage, the psychological study of mourning has traditionally been conducted from a mentalistic and subjectivist perspective. In this paper, we present an alternative to the mentalistic approach by reconsidering mourning from a socio-semiotic perspective that draws heavily on the early philosophical writings of Bakhtin. More specifically, we conceptualize mourning as a process of meaning-making. This conceptualization is illustrated through texts written by women who have experienced stillbirth. Our analysis points out the social illegitimacy of mourning for a stillborn, the related difficulties, and the way stillbirth mothers struggle to overcome these difficulties.