Holiday gatherings can act as glue to hold families together, but some people we love may not be able to pull up a chair at the table this year--or maybe ever. Others are only partially present. "Ambiguous loss" is the term coined by family therapist Pauline Boss of the University of Minnesota to describe the problem of having a loved one absent but not clearly dead--missing in war or a natural disaster--or only a limited presence because of Alzheimer's or an emotional issue. In an interview with TIME, Boss, whose new book for therapists, Loss, Trauma, and Resilience, is due in 2006,...
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