Closure: The Rush to End Grief and What it Costs Us

Hour Two

Do you need closure to heal? Can it be achieved? Most people want a satisfying end to a traumatic event, but are we setting our expectations too high? Our guest, associate professor of sociology at Drake University, NANCY BERNS, thinks personal grieving is often exploited, creating a cottage industry of gimmicks and services those in their depths need not buy. She looks at how the culture of closure is used in death penalty cases as victims’ families are given false hope an execution will bring them peace. Did the death of Osama Bin Laden bring closure to the families of those killed on 9/11? Berns thinks not. Berns researched the many ways people cope with grief and how people at their lowest are manipulated in her new book, “Closure: The Rush to End Grief and What it Costs Us.”

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