Cite as (APA style): Dacheva, A. & Boyadzhieva, A. (2026). The unnamed role: Linguistic and psychological aspects of the bereaved parent through the lens of Positive Psychotherapy. The Global Psychotherapist, 6(2), 141-147 http://doi.org/10.52982/lkj321

Abstract: Language plays a fundamental role in structuring, naming, and socially validating human experience. While most contemporary languages contain specific terms for certain forms of loss–such as widowhood and orphanhood–there is no widely established term for a parent who has lost a child. However, notable exceptions exist in some linguistic and cultural traditions. This linguistic gap raises questions that extend beyond linguistics into psychology and cultural anthropology.
The present paper aims to analyze this absence as a culturally and semantically meaningful phenomenon and to explore its psychological implications through the framework of Positive Psychotherapy. The central hypothesis is that the lack of a lexical category not only reflects but may also intensify difficulties in symbolization, meaning-making, and adaptation to loss.
This paper adopts a theoretical-conceptual approach, drawing on social constructivism, cognitive linguistics, and grief psychology, as well as core concepts of Positive Psychotherapy. It examines how the absence of naming influences internal conflict, emotional processing, and the reconstruction of meaning, with particular attention to language as a symbolic container.
The analysis suggests that linguistic absence functions both as a limitation and as a space for individualized meaning-making. While the lack of a term may hinder social recognition and symbolic integration, it may also resist reducing a profoundly complex experience to a fixed category.
The paper contributes to the understanding of bereavement by highlighting the role of language in psychological adaptation and by positioning psychotherapy as a process that supports the development of a personal symbolic language for loss.

Keywords: bereavement, loss of a child, lexical gap, Positive Psychotherapy, meaning-making