"Livet måste gå vidare för oss som lever" : En studie om döden i terapeutisk barnlitteratur

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine how death and mourning is portrayed in children’s books used in social work. A selection of five books, all written relatively recently and originating from Western European countries, was made based on advice from a hospital library, an important resource for medical social workers. These books were analyzed using content analysis, where we searched for themes such as causes of death, grieving and funerals. Using coping theory we looked for coping strategies portrayed in the stories. We found that the books, whether they were steadily grounded in reality or more fairytale-like with philosophical overtones, depicted death in a matter-of-fact way, as a sad but inevitable part of life. In a few of the books death was even portrayed as a liberation from suffering associated with fatal illness. Grief was likewise shown as an inevitable reaction when faced with the death of a dear one. Acceptance and gaining information about the death process and what happens afterwards were common ways for the characters in the books to handle the loss of a dear one. Other common coping strategies were grieving together with someone else, cherishing positive memories of the deceased person, and conducting rituals to mark the departure and honour his or her memory. None of the books showed an unambiguous version of any classic religious concept of an afterlife, even though allusions to religion and mythology, such as pictures of angels and personifications of death or talk about heaven and hell, were common.