To Grieve or Not to Grieve: Shakespeare's Hamlet as Case Study in Bereavement

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Delivery: Synchronous virtual classroom via Zoom

Series Dates:

1. September 22, 2023
2. October 13, 2023
3. November 17, 2023
4. December 1, 2023

Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, is considered by many critics to be the finest work of English literature. The play is action-packed depicting, murder, betrayal, and revenge as well as grief, suicide and madness within the royal court of Denmark.  

The workshop will explore important issues in bereavement care in four three-hour parts using the play as a case study. First, the tension between staying attached to the deceased and letting go. Second, the different ways and impacts of people staying connected to the deceased. Third, the role of narrative in people’s grief and in grief therapy. Fourth, the particularity of loss by suicide and suicide as a result of loss. Portions of a BBC production of Hamlet will be screened in the workshops.

Learning Objectives:  Participants of this program will be able to (1) identify the assumptions of three different models of grief; (2) analyze grief from individual, family, gender, socio-cultural, and historical frames; (3) identify adaptive and maladaptive ways of staying attached to the deceased; (4) utilize narrative techniques in bereavement care; (5) discuss the particular challenges of suicide bereavement.

This series is appropriate for all post-master's level clinical practitioners.