Necessary losses: the loves, illusions, dependencies and impossible expectations that all of us have

by Judith Viorst

New York, N.Y. : Simon & Schuster, c.1998

From grief and mourning to aging and relationships, poet and Redbook contributor Judith Viorst presents a thoughtful and researched study in this examination of love, loss, and letting go.

Reviews

Cynthia Morrow-Hattal
…the kind of book every home should have sitting next to the bedside table.
October 7, 2018
It’s no wonder that this book has been a New York Times Bestseller for a very
long time. It’s the kind of book every home should have sitting next to the bedside table.
Viorst has compiled years of psychological research into one brilliantly concise outline
of how and why human beings yearn for oneness from our very birth, how we seek to
replace parental love, the implications of that search through all of our subsequent
relationships, and how that quest can impair our ability to become fully functioning, well-adjusted adults. Viorst addresses many forms of love and loss, guilt, childrearing,
friendship, gender issues, marriage, partnerships, and ultimately death. She brings the
reader to a clearer awareness of what may long have lurked beneath the surface of
everyday life while illuminating the psyche’s dazzling complexity in her understandable,
compassionate discussion of what it takes to become fully human.