Closure from ambiguous loss is a harmful misnomer. What’s needed is resilience

to live in meaningful ways with no closure. - Pauline Boss, PhD.

In the 1970s, Pauline Boss, PhD, began developing her theory of ambiguous loss which she

brought to the lay public in 1999 in Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief.

Ambiguous loss is an “unclear loss with unanswered questions.” Such loss can be physical or

psychological, catastrophic or commonplace. In her recent book, The Myth of Closure:

Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change (2022), Dr. Boss expounds on ambiguous

loss on all levels, from the individual to the world stage. She proposes that generational effects

of racism might be understood more fully though the lens of ambiguous loss. Across cultures

and contexts, Dr. Boss has found that reaching closure is a myth, and a harmful one at that.

Rather, the aspiration is resilience: to learn to live with no closure, to recognize grief as a

natural response, to find meaning in the loss, and to go on to live a good life.

Connect with Dr. Boss:

https://www.ambiguousloss.com

The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change. WW Norton,

2022. https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324016816