The Grieving Brain

The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

De: Mary-Frances O'Connor

Narrado por: Callie Beaulieu

NPR SciFri Book Club Pick

Next Big Idea Club's "Top 21 Psychology Books of 2022"

Behavioral Scientist Notable Books of 2022

A renowned grief expert and neuroscientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning.

In The Grieving Brain, neuroscientist and psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD, gives us a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. O’Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, and in this book, she makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible through her contagious enthusiasm, and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, or how to imagine a future without them.

The Grieving Brain addresses:

• Why it’s so hard to understand that a loved one has died and is gone forever
• Why grief causes so many emotions—sadness, anger, blame, guilt, and yearning
• Why grieving takes so long
• The distinction between grief and prolonged grief
• Why we ruminate so much after we lose a loved one
• How we go about restoring a meaningful life while grieving

Based on O’Connor’s own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.

©2022 by O’Connor Productions, Inc. (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

pragmatic and illuminating

Author casts an excellent performer. Data heavy but experientially related. Which is to say this book brings people info focus, with interesting hope-filled guidance. Thank you.

Complexities of Grieving Brains

As a bereaved mom and recent widowed nurse, I rather enjoyed the scientific research behind what I had been feeling with the sudden loss of our firstborn. And then now, with the recent loss of my husband, I can see the difference of why my son’s loss was so difficult for the whole family & I versus my hubby’s death from a 10.5 month battle with an aggressive brain cancer. Wow! What great information and how I can see how invaluable a wonderful grief therapist really is. Thank you, Mary-Frances O’Conner for scientifically proving I wasn’t “going crazy”!

Helpful

Grieving is not the same for all and this helped me understand that. Feeling thankful!

So very insightful

I recommend this book to anyone who is faced with grieving. It really makes you think of your life differently!!!

Grief can be demonstrated on mris

Gave me confirmation of why I’m still suffering and that it’s okay for me to feel this way for as long as it takes

Compelling and full of interesting perspectives

This is a really enjoyable read for a very broad audience. It's science forward without being inaccessible. The book and ideas are very approachable because of the effortless involvement of humor and personal vignettes. A surprising amount of areas are covered and woven into the narrative, which all seem well integrated and add to a nice comprehensive picture. I was deeply touched at times, and that worked extremely well in combination with being challenged in my understanding. It leaves enough room to ask a lot of important questions. thanks for writing this!

Simply brilliant

Having experience intense grief in my 20’s - first the loss of a best friend and second the sudden loss of my first husband - through to the grief I am experiencing now at 50 for the sudden loss of my mother - this book is so enlightening. It has helped me understand the process my younger self went through and why the process of grieving my mother - while intensely painful at times, feels different. I cannot rate this book highly enough. Our brains are indeed marvellous ‘machines’.

What a fantastic book! I

I work with grief and grieving. I am impressed with the science and the straightforward explanations the book provides. I learned a great deal and have already recommended the book to several people.

Ayuda mucho a los q estamos en duelo

Gran lectura. Bien explicado. Deja ver, por qué sentimos lo q sentimos cuando sufrimos una perdida, ya sea de un aer querido, trabajo o cuando nos mudamos a otra ciudad.
Lo recomiendo mucho. Ojalá hubiera una versión en español del audiolibro.

I liked the informative views she took

However I wish she would have delved into
More of the actual studies she did on people bereaved.