哀悼傷逝的文化模式：由連結到療癒

Relocating Grieving Resolution: From Reconnection to Healing

許敏桃(Min-Tao Hsu) ； 余德慧(Der-Hui Yee) ； 李維倫(Wei-Lun Lee)

《本土心理學研究》 24期 (2005/12) Pp. 49-84

摘要

本篇文章運用過去第一作者（許敏桃）在1995年至2002年間在台灣田野中所執行的數個詮釋人類學研究的資料進行再分析，以檢視適應死亡受苦經驗的本土哀悼傷逝文化模式。52個寡婦及30個父親死亡的青少年的訪談及田野觀察被用來分析作為顯家庭哀傷適應模式的基礎。根據研究結果發現三個家庭哀悼傷逝的相關主題，包括：家庭常規的固著(maintaining the status quo)，死者位格的重置(restoring images of the deceased in family affairs)，以及尋求與死者的關係(communicating with the dead)。此三個主題呈顯哀傷家庭為達到華人生活終極目標「圓滿」及保留父親或丈夫象徵意象的努力。這些資料呈顯出台灣華人的哀悼傷逝模式與西方強調以「貫穿修通」為哀傷療癒主軸的論述是有所差異的。有別於西方切斷與死者關係的療癒進程，台灣華人的研究顯示與死者關係的再連結是主要的文化哀傷反應。其中，喪偶婦女運用本地的信仰實演來進行與死去丈夫的連結，包括：靈媒與祖先崇拜。而青春期的孩子除模仿母親的祖先崇拜方式外，以創發意象父親作為與死去父親的關係連結為主要基礎。在台灣華人文化的脈絡下，兩者均以此關係連結來平復因丈夫或父親死亡所帶來的不完整感或失敗感，以再次達到文化意念所要求的完整家庭圖像。整體而言，作者們提出經由連結以達到哀悼傷逝的療癒是本土華人特殊文化的明證理據。

關鍵字

文化 ； 台灣 ； 死亡 ； 哀傷 ； 喪偶家庭 ； 寡居

並列摘要

Using data from several interpretative ethnographic studies conducted in Taiwan from 1995 to 2002, the authors examine indigenous cultural patterns of suffering as they affect adaptation to loss from death. Participant observation and the narratives of 52 widows and 30 adolescents without fathers were used to generate an adaptive model of family bereavement. According to the findings, three themes-maintaining the status quo, restoring images of the deceased in family affairs, and communicating with the dead-represent the efforts of bereaved families to retain a sense of wholeness (a central Chinese goal) and to preserve symbolic images of fathers and husbands. The data indicate that the grieving process in Taiwan is clearly different from its Western counterpart, which emphasizes the concept of ”working through” as a major means of healing from bereavement. In Taiwan, reconnection rather than cutting-off relationships with the deceased dominate bereavement responses. Widowed mothers use local religious practices, mediums, and ancestor worship to locate deceased husbands, and teenagers create imaginary fathers to address a sense of incompleteness and failure that emerges from their father's deaths. Our conclusion is that reconnection is a culturally specific and accepted means of resolving grief among Taiwanese.

並列關鍵字

bereavement ； culture ； death ； Taiwan ； widowed family ； widowhood

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