Studies that have examined pet loss hypothesize that attachment, representations of death, and the belief in an afterlife for animals may influence owners' bereavement and depressive outcomes. The following instruments were administered to 159 Italian participants recruited through snowball sampling: the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire (PBQ), the Testoni Death Representation Scale (TDRS), and Beck's Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). Questions concerning pet euthanasia-related issues and the relationship between owners and veterinarians were also submitted to the participants. A path model was conducted, showing that the representation of death and the attachment to a pet had a direct effect on pet grief, which in turn had a direct effect on depression. The results show a positive correlation between the LAPS and PBQ factors, particularly with the PBQ factor Grief. The LAPS factors positively correlated with the TDRS representation of Death as a Passage and negatively correlated with the TDRS representation of Death as Annihilation. The LAPS People Substituting factor positively correlated with the total score and the Cognitive-Affective factor of the BDI-II. The PBQ factors positively correlated with the BDI-II, whereas only the TDRS Death as Annihilation factor positively correlated with the BDI-II. Belief in a transcendent dimension was associated with higher scores on the PBQ Guilt factor and the TDRS factors of Death as a Passage and Death as Change, whereas these beliefs were associated with lower scores on the TDRS factor Death as Annihilation. The results indicated that the sensitivity of the veterinarian and a veterinarian who helps owners make conscious and informed decisions for their pet and choose the right time to perform euthanasia are important variables in the management of pet loss. However, these factors are not sufficient and psychological support should be improved to help owners better cope with grief.

The censorship of death and dying has removed the “memento mori” practices, and in order to reintroduce this practice, some “Before I die” projects have been increasingly implemented. Running in parallel, in the syllabi of social service and psychology students, some experiences of death education has commenced. This study illustrates the results of a qualitative research conducted on the “Before I die I want to …” Polaroid® Project (BIDIWT), which is divided into two phases. The first phase entails an analysis of the wishes collected from the United States, Japan, India, and Italy. The second phase refers to the analysis of the captions of the BIDIWT realized from two groups of undergraduates, with regard to the effect of such experience on their religiosity, representation of death, and fear of death.

Loss and its associated grief are important elements of many adverse life events. The focus of this study is centred on a particular form of mourning: the affliction derived from the social identity loss caused by the disaffiliation with a religious sect. In postmodern society, this phenomenon needs to be better evaluated because it may be causing severe distress in an increasing number of people. The literature describes the stress caused by switching from one religious group to another, but less analysis has been done on the potential deleterious effects of the loss of social identity because of the breaking down of relationships with people within the original group. Following the grounded theory approach, 14 former Jehovah's Witnesses were interviewed with interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three main profiles emerged-born into the faith, converts to the faith, and inactive members-with different difficulties deriving from the loss of social identity and the relational network. The inquiry was focused on the effects of the identification versus individuation processes and also addressed the role of death anxiety. Results confirmed on the one hand a high level of distress that often caused death anxiety, alcoholism, panic attacks, and depression, as described in the literature. On the other hand, the importance of the individuation process emerged, following theologian Paul Tillich's concept of "courage of self-affirmation" and Bernard Lonergan's "self-appropriation," whose development occurs in three phases: de-identification and loss, grieving and crisis, and the work of grief and complete self-affirmation or self-appropriation. The usefulness of communicating these specific themes to a broad audience by enhancing community education through widespread spiritual counseling is also addressed.

The article presents the results of a research intervention aimed at exploring the differences among some factors (death anxiety, ontological representation of death as annihilation, alexithymia, spirituality, resilience, happiness) in two different groups of university students: one that attended a course of Death Education (DeEd; 83 students: DeEd-gr) and another one that did not participate in it (149: NoDeEd-gr). The DeEd course utilized the photo-voice as an elective strategy aimed at facilitating the performative experience. It was hypothesized that this method could help DeEd-gr in sharing emotions and spiritual experiences while managing the increase of death anxiety, inevitably caused by the deathrelated issues introduced during the lessons. The results confirmed that, despite the higher death anxiety, the DeEd-gr had a greater level of happiness and lower alexithymia compared with NoDeEd-gr, suggesting that the use of photo-voice can be useful in the course because it facilitates the management of communication and relationships. A further analysis was realized to explain the relationships between the different dimensions considered. Results evidenced that spirituality was inversely correlated with the representation of death as annihilation and with alexithymia, which was positively related to personal happiness. However, in DeEd-gr, spirituality impacted less on happiness, while the representation of death as annihilation impacted significantly more on resilience among participants of NoDeEd-gr. The discussion analyzes some characteristics that differentiated women and men, compared with men, and considers how DeEd courses should recognize the role of the ontological representations of death with their relationships with spirituality.

This article presents the qualitative analysis of reports obtained through participant observations collected over a three-year period in a series of suicide survivor self-help group meetings. The aim was to analyze how grievers' healing was managed by their own support. The group was composed by 2 men and 8 women and the meetings happened between April 2013 and May 2016 (usually one time per week). Results show how self-blame was continuously present along all the period and how it increased when new participants entered the group. This finding indicates that self-blame characterizes especially the beginning of the participation, and that any new entrance rekindles the problem. However, no participant had ever definitively demonstrated self-forgiveness, while a general forgiveness appeared when self-blame stopped. It is also suggested how to facilitate the elaboration of self-blame and forgiveness. The interest of this study lies in its longitudinal design.