Selected publications.
A better-updated archive on my Academia.edu and ResearchGate pages.
Byrne, E.A. 2022. Grief in Chronic Illness: A Case Study of CFS/ME. Journal of Consciousness Studies.
This paper points to a more expansive conception of grief by arguing that the losses of illness can be genuine objects of grief. I argue for this by illuminating underappreciated structural features of typical grief — that is, grief over a bereavement — which are shared but under-recognized. I offer a common chronic illness, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), as a striking case study. I then use this analysis to highlight some clinical challenges that arise should this claim receive uptake in clinical practice. Extant literature on CFS/ME tells us that rates of comorbid depression are atypically high. If one accepts that people with CFS/ME can grieve over losses associated with the condition, and that grief can be easily mistaken for depression in this context, this might suggest that rates of comorbid depression are inflated. I show, however, that the challenge of distinguishing between healthy and pathological grief arises in its place, and is just as tricky to solve.
Ratcliffe, M. & Byrne, E. 2022. Grief, Self and Narrative. Philosophical Explorations.
Various claims have been made concerning the role of narrative in grief. In this paper, we emphasize the need for a discerning approach, which acknowledges that narratives of different kinds relate to grief in different ways. We focus specifically on the positive contributions that narrative can make to sustaining, restoring and revising a sense of who one is. We argue that, although it is right to suggest that narratives provide structure and coherence, they also play a complementary role in disrupting established structure and opening up new possibilities. We add that both of these roles point to the importance of interpersonal, social and cultural factors in shaping the trajectory of grief. We conclude by briefly considering the implications for distinguishing between typical and pathological forms of grief.
Byrne, E.A. 2022. Understanding Long Covid: Nosology, Social Attitudes and Stigma. Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
The debate around Long Covid has so far shown resistance to accept parallels between Long Covid and a set of existing conditions which have historically been subject to stigma. This resistance risks endorsing the stigma associated with such existing conditions, and as such, these dynamics of stigma ought to be dismantled in order to facilitate the development of effective clinical resources for all such implicated conditions. As well as affecting proceedings at the structural level, I discuss how the aforementioned problems also risk affecting patients at the personal level by motivating the reconfiguration and restriction of patient illness narratives. The problems I identify therefore risk affecting both collective and individual understanding of Long Covid.
Ratcliffe, M. & Byrne, E.A. 2022. ‘The Interpersonal and Social Dimensions of Emotion Regulation in Grief’ In Allan Køster & Ester Holte Kofod. Eds. Grief Experience: Cultural, Existential and Phenomenological Perspectives. Routledge.
This chapter addresses the nature and role of emotion regulation in grief. Human emotion regulation often involves processes that are interpersonal and social in structure. Given this, the death of a particular person can deprive us of regulatory resources that we would otherwise draw upon in responding to upheaval. A distinctive sense of disorientation and uncertainty therefore arises. The course of grief then depends, to a substantial degree, on how one’s emotions, thoughts, and activities continue to be shaped by relations with other people, as well as by wider social and cultural environments. To illustrate these points, we conclude by reflecting on how social restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic may have affected people’s experiences of grief.
Richardson, L., Ratcliffe, M., Millar, B., Byrne, E.A. 'The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Bounds of Grief'. Think, 2021.
This article addresses the question of whether certain experiences that originate in causes other than bereavement are properly termed ‘grief’. To do so, we focus on widespread experiences of grief that have been reported during the Covid-19 pandemic. We consider two potential objections to a more permissive use of the term: (i) grief is, by definition, a response to a death; (ii) grief is subject to certain norms that apply only to the case of bereavement. Having shown that these objections are unconvincing, we sketch a positive case for a conception of grief that is not specific to bereavement, by noting some features that grief following bereavement shares with other experiences of loss.
Byrne, E.A, 'Striking the balance with epistemic injustice in healthcare: the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis', Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 2020.
This paper illuminates tensions that arise between taking steps to protect against committing epistemic injustice in healthcare, and taking steps to understand the complexity of one’s predicament and treat it accordingly. Work on epistemic injustice is therefore at risk of obfuscating legitimate and potentially fruitful inquiry. This paper uses Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as a case study, but I suggest that the key problems identified could apply to other cases within healthcare, such as those classed as Medically Unexplained Illnesses, Functional Neurological Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders. Future work on epistemic injustice in healthcare must recognise and attend to this tension to protect against unsatisfactory attempts to correct epistemic injustice.
A better-updated archive on my Academia.edu and ResearchGate pages.
Byrne, E.A. 2022. Grief in Chronic Illness: A Case Study of CFS/ME. Journal of Consciousness Studies.
This paper points to a more expansive conception of grief by arguing that the losses of illness can be genuine objects of grief. I argue for this by illuminating underappreciated structural features of typical grief — that is, grief over a bereavement — which are shared but under-recognized. I offer a common chronic illness, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), as a striking case study. I then use this analysis to highlight some clinical challenges that arise should this claim receive uptake in clinical practice. Extant literature on CFS/ME tells us that rates of comorbid depression are atypically high. If one accepts that people with CFS/ME can grieve over losses associated with the condition, and that grief can be easily mistaken for depression in this context, this might suggest that rates of comorbid depression are inflated. I show, however, that the challenge of distinguishing between healthy and pathological grief arises in its place, and is just as tricky to solve.
Ratcliffe, M. & Byrne, E. 2022. Grief, Self and Narrative. Philosophical Explorations.
Various claims have been made concerning the role of narrative in grief. In this paper, we emphasize the need for a discerning approach, which acknowledges that narratives of different kinds relate to grief in different ways. We focus specifically on the positive contributions that narrative can make to sustaining, restoring and revising a sense of who one is. We argue that, although it is right to suggest that narratives provide structure and coherence, they also play a complementary role in disrupting established structure and opening up new possibilities. We add that both of these roles point to the importance of interpersonal, social and cultural factors in shaping the trajectory of grief. We conclude by briefly considering the implications for distinguishing between typical and pathological forms of grief.
Byrne, E.A. 2022. Understanding Long Covid: Nosology, Social Attitudes and Stigma. Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
The debate around Long Covid has so far shown resistance to accept parallels between Long Covid and a set of existing conditions which have historically been subject to stigma. This resistance risks endorsing the stigma associated with such existing conditions, and as such, these dynamics of stigma ought to be dismantled in order to facilitate the development of effective clinical resources for all such implicated conditions. As well as affecting proceedings at the structural level, I discuss how the aforementioned problems also risk affecting patients at the personal level by motivating the reconfiguration and restriction of patient illness narratives. The problems I identify therefore risk affecting both collective and individual understanding of Long Covid.
Ratcliffe, M. & Byrne, E.A. 2022. ‘The Interpersonal and Social Dimensions of Emotion Regulation in Grief’ In Allan Køster & Ester Holte Kofod. Eds. Grief Experience: Cultural, Existential and Phenomenological Perspectives. Routledge.
This chapter addresses the nature and role of emotion regulation in grief. Human emotion regulation often involves processes that are interpersonal and social in structure. Given this, the death of a particular person can deprive us of regulatory resources that we would otherwise draw upon in responding to upheaval. A distinctive sense of disorientation and uncertainty therefore arises. The course of grief then depends, to a substantial degree, on how one’s emotions, thoughts, and activities continue to be shaped by relations with other people, as well as by wider social and cultural environments. To illustrate these points, we conclude by reflecting on how social restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic may have affected people’s experiences of grief.
Richardson, L., Ratcliffe, M., Millar, B., Byrne, E.A. 'The Covid-19 Pandemic and the Bounds of Grief'. Think, 2021.
This article addresses the question of whether certain experiences that originate in causes other than bereavement are properly termed ‘grief’. To do so, we focus on widespread experiences of grief that have been reported during the Covid-19 pandemic. We consider two potential objections to a more permissive use of the term: (i) grief is, by definition, a response to a death; (ii) grief is subject to certain norms that apply only to the case of bereavement. Having shown that these objections are unconvincing, we sketch a positive case for a conception of grief that is not specific to bereavement, by noting some features that grief following bereavement shares with other experiences of loss.
Byrne, E.A, 'Striking the balance with epistemic injustice in healthcare: the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis', Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 2020.
This paper illuminates tensions that arise between taking steps to protect against committing epistemic injustice in healthcare, and taking steps to understand the complexity of one’s predicament and treat it accordingly. Work on epistemic injustice is therefore at risk of obfuscating legitimate and potentially fruitful inquiry. This paper uses Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as a case study, but I suggest that the key problems identified could apply to other cases within healthcare, such as those classed as Medically Unexplained Illnesses, Functional Neurological Disorders and Psychiatric Disorders. Future work on epistemic injustice in healthcare must recognise and attend to this tension to protect against unsatisfactory attempts to correct epistemic injustice.