A fascinating look at the social experience of sharing a bed with another person.

In the extensive literature on couples and intimacy, little has been written about knowing and not knowing as people experience and understand them. Based on intensive interviews with thirty-seven adults, this book shows that knowing and not knowing are central to couple relationships. They are entangled in love, sexual attraction, trust, commitment, caring, empathy, decision making, conflict, and many other aspects of couple life. Often the entanglement is paradoxical. For example, many interviewees revealed that they hungered to be known and yet kept secrets from their partner. Many described working hard at knowing their partner well, and yet there were also things about their partner and their partner's past that they wanted not to know. This book's qualitative, phenomenological approach builds on and adds to the largely quantitative social psychological, communications and family field literature to offer a new and accessible insight into the experience of intimacy.

* This pioneering book provides a research-based, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of African American grief. * The book includes extensive quotations from the African-American interviewees that are rich in insights and often moving. * The book provides a rich picture of the many ways racism is entangled in African American deaths and grief. * It is the first contemporary resource to highlight the grief experiences of African Americans. * It is used in seminaries around the country

* This pioneering book provides a research-based, comprehensive, in-depth analysis of African American grief. * The book includes extensive quotations from the African-American interviewees that are rich in insights and often moving. * The book provides a rich picture of the many ways racism is entangled in African American deaths and grief. * It is the first contemporary resource to highlight the grief experiences of African Americans. * It is used in seminaries around the country

In spite of the existence of statistics and numerical data on various aspects of African American life, including housing, earnings, assets, unemployment, household violence, teen pregnancy and encounters with the criminal justice system, social science literature on how racism affects the everyday interactions of African American families is limited. How does racism come home to and affect African American families? If a father in an African American family is denied employment on the basis of his race or a wife is demeaned at work by racist slurs, how is their family life affected? Given the lack of social science literature responding to these questions, this volume turns to an alternative source in order to address them: literature. Engaging with novels written by African American authors, it explores their rich depictions of African American family life, showing how these can contribute to our sociological knowledge and making the case for the novel as an object and source of social research. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of the sociology of the family, race and ethnicity, cultural studies and literature.

In spite of the existence of statistics and numerical data on various aspects of African American life, including housing, earnings, assets, unemployment, household violence, teen pregnancy and encounters with the criminal justice system, social science literature on how racism affects the everyday interactions of African American families is limited. How does racism come home to and affect African American families? If a father in an African American family is denied employment on the basis of his race or a wife is demeaned at work by racist slurs, how is their family life affected? Given the lack of social science literature responding to these questions, this volume turns to an alternative source in order to address them: literature. Engaging with novels written by African American authors, it explores their rich depictions of African American family life, showing how these can contribute to our sociological knowledge and making the case for the novel as an object and source of social research. As such, it will appeal to scholars and students of the sociology of the family, race and ethnicity, cultural studies and literature.

In Multiracial Couples, 21 couples in which one partner is black and the other is white talk about their experiences. The book offers a comprehensive and insightful analysis based on extensive quotations. It discusses the fact that these couples see their relationships as ordinary, as well as their encounters with racism. It also provides a pioneering exploration of how they became a couple, their relationships with families of origin and with the community, how partners dafine themselves as individuals and as a couple, the ways they defend against racism, their parenting experiences, what the partners learn from each other, and the blessings of being an interracial couple. The authors of Multiracial Couples provide a first-person account that will be equal value to professionals and scholars in family studies, race and ethnic studies, family psychology, and sociology. "Multiracial Couples is the result of a well-conducted study of 21 black/white couples and their experiences. It focuses strongly on the words of the participants themselves, rather than on a psychological interpretation of their words, and that is its great strength. Chapters cover topics from identity to societal racism, and although there is background material with each topic, the primary voices are the couples'. The authors then provide an interesting, comprehensive analysis with each chapter. These conclusions do not attempt to sum up, but instead offer additional ideas for thought. In essence, the authors provide a very sound framework and guidance for the discussion without being judgmental, and they do achieve the delicate balance necessary to the completeness of this text." --Interracial Voice "Multiracial Couples is a detailed look at a phenomenon that many individuals would like to see disappear. This cogent presentation of the issue is must reading. It is informative, written from a dispassionate but critical viewpoint, and reader-friendly. First addressing, in the authors' words, 'the most corrosive form of white opposition to interracial couples--racism,' the authors subsequently guide readers like a diary of an interracial relationship. . . . Family therapists, scholars, and practitioners will find this an invaluable resource. Highly recommended for all levels." --Choice "This is an unusual and unique book. . . . The issues, problems, perceptions and solutions have wide applicability. Therapists dealing with couple problems in multiracial countries will find these pages fascinating and instructive." --Kalyana Rodrigo in Sexual and Marital Therapy

Based on intensive interviews with 29 couples who lost at least one child (age newborn to mid 30's), this book explores what couple and individual stories say and do not say about the child's dying and death and about parent grief. Among the dozens of areas that the book illuminates are the process of searching for what is true and right about the death and its aftermath; the ways the parents characterize the child; the continuing relationship of parents and child; the language of couple conflict and divorce; parent metaphors in talking about the dying process, death, and grief; organ donation; death rituals; the sexual relationship of the grieving parents.
The author uses narratives as his tool for the introduction and exploration of the many facets of parental grief as well as life after the death of a child. The number of narratives used is a manageable one that offers key concepts while maintaining organization. The use of narratives is key to the book and to the research as the narratives represent the realities of the parents in their own terms (what they have thought about; what's important to them). At the couple level, these narratives shed light on what a couple can and can not work through following the death of a child and the rebuilding of their own lives. Such a window to the grief process and life for the couple after the death of their child is novel, fascinating, and critical to the endeavors of grief therapists.

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In the extensive literature on couples and intimacy, little has been written about knowing and not knowing as people experience and understand them. Based on intensive interviews with thirty-seven adults, this book shows that knowing and not knowing are central to couple relationships. They are entangled in love, sexual attraction, trust, commitment, caring, empathy, decision making, conflict, and many other aspects of couple life. Often the entanglement is paradoxical. For example, many interviewees revealed that they hungered to be known and yet kept secrets from their partner. Many described working hard at knowing their partner well, and yet there were also things about their partner and their partner's past that they wanted not to know. This book's qualitative, phenomenological approach builds on and adds to the largely quantitative social psychological, communications and family field literature to offer a new and accessible insight into the experience of intimacy.

African American Grief is a unique contribution to the field, both as a professional resource for counselors, therapists, social workers, clergy, and nurses, and as a reference volume for thanatologists, academics, and researchers. This work considers the potential effects of slavery, racism, and white ignorance and oppression on the African American experience and conception of death and grief in America. Based on interviews with 26 African-Americans who have faced the death of a significant person in their lives, the authors document, describe, and analyze key phenomena of the unique African-American experience of grief. The book combines moving narratives from the interviewees with sound research, analysis, and theoretical discussion of important issues in thanatology as well as topics such as the influence of the African-American church, gospel music, family grief, medical racism as a cause of death, and discrimination during life and after death.

It is often convenient to assume that grief is a basic human process, akin to breathing, sleeping, or walking. While there will always be slight differences in the duration, intensity, and exact grieving process of a given individual, the similarities in the fundamental experience and physical and mental responses to loss allow counselors, friends, and family members to have a foundation for work with the bereaved. However, while these underlying similarities can help to facilitate our understanding of the grieving experience, it is important to consider the impacts that particular cultural, historical, societal, and religious traits can have on a group's experiences with grief. In light of this acknowledgement, there have been a number of cross-cultural studies of grieving rituals, funeral and burial rites, and mourning experiences that have all contributed to an increased sensitivity to the distinctiveness of grieving experiences between different groups. But what has not been considered is a non-comparative study of a specific group's unique experiences with grief, within its own context and without comparison to white, Euro-American experiences. professional resource for counselors, therapists, social workers, clergy, and nurses, and as a reference volume for thanatologists, academics, and researchers. This work considers the potential effects of slavery, racism, and white ignorance and oppression on the African American experience and conception of death and grief in America. Based on interviews with 26 African-Americans who have faced the death of a significant person in their lives, the authors document, describe, and analyze key phenomena of the unique African-American experience of grief. The book combines moving narratives from the interviewees with sound research, analysis, and theoretical discussion of important issues in thanatology as well as topics such as the influence of the African-American church, gospel music, family grief, medical racism as a cause of death, and discrimination during life and after death.

Written for researchers and graduate students writing dissertations, this unique book offers detailed advice and perspective on many issues that can stall a research project and reveals what can be done to successfully resume it. Using a direct yet conversational style, author Paul C. Rosenblatt draws on his decades of experience to cover many diverse topics. The text guides readers through challenges such as clarifying the end goal of a project; resolving common and not-so-common writing problems; dealing with rejection and revision decisions; handling difficulties involving dissertation advisers and committee members; coping with issues of researcher motivation or self-esteem; and much more.

This innovative book probes the language of family systems theory, demonstrating how metaphors shape our understanding both of families themselves and of the goals and process of therapy. The author shows how a deeper understanding of standard theoretical metaphors--and the development of alternatives--can help clinicians and students identify hidden assumptions, incorporate perspectives that may otherwise have been overlooked, and forge creative new meanings in clinical practice.

In Multiracial Couples, 21 couples in which one partner is black and the other is white talk about their experiences. The book offers a comprehensive and insightful analysis based on extensive quotations. It discusses the fact that these couples see their relationships as ordinary, as well as their encounters with racism. It also provides a pioneering exploration of how they became a couple, their relationships with families of origin and with the community, how partners dafine themselves as individuals and as a couple, the ways they defend against racism, their parenting experiences, what the partners learn from each other, and the blessings of being an interracial couple. The authors of Multiracial Couples provide a first-person account that will be equal value to professionals and scholars in family studies, race and ethnic studies, family psychology, and sociology. "Multiracial Couples is the result of a well-conducted study of 21 black/white couples and their experiences. It focuses strongly on the words of the participants themselves, rather than on a psychological interpretation of their words, and that is its great strength. Chapters cover topics from identity to societal racism, and although there is background material with each topic, the primary voices are the couples'. The authors then provide an interesting, comprehensive analysis with each chapter. These conclusions do not attempt to sum up, but instead offer additional ideas for thought. In essence, the authors provide a very sound framework and guidance for the discussion without being judgmental, and they do achieve the delicate balance necessary to the completeness of this text." --Interracial Voice "Multiracial Couples is a detailed look at a phenomenon that many individuals would like to see disappear. This cogent presentation of the issue is must reading. It is informative, written from a dispassionate but critical viewpoint, and reader-friendly. First addressing, in the authors' words, 'the most corrosive form of white opposition to interracial couples--racism,' the authors subsequently guide readers like a diary of an interracial relationship. . . . Family therapists, scholars, and practitioners will find this an invaluable resource. Highly recommended for all levels." --Choice "This is an unusual and unique book. . . . The issues, problems, perceptions and solutions have wide applicability. Therapists dealing with couple problems in multiracial countries will find these pages fascinating and instructive." --Kalyana Rodrigo in Sexual and Marital Therapy

The modern family is inundated with information and no family can attend to it all; families must set priorities and remain oblivious to much. Obliviousness is the intriguing subject of Paul C. Rosenblatt's speculative and theoretical work. The hidden undersides of what families are aware of, know, and talk about are vast and complex, maintained at times with great effort, linked to important matters in the family and in society, necessary for family functioning but also, at times, a source of great difficulty. How are areas of obliviousness built up and maintained? How does a family overcome obliviousness that creates difficulty? Drawing on work in family systems, family therapy, whiteness and privilege, and social construction, among other research, this book is enlightening for all who work with, study, and care about the family.