The concept describes the fact that some forms of grief are not acknowledged on a personal or societal level in modern Eurocentric culture.
There are few support systems, rituals, traditions, or institutions such as bereavement leave available to those experiencing grief and loss.
[1] Even widely recognized forms of grief can become disenfranchised when well-meaning friends and family attempt to set a time limit on a bereaved person's right to grieve.
For example, the need to regulate mourning and restore a state of normal work activity severely impacted the grieving process of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, according to American scholar Edward Linenthal.
[2] Examples of events that may lead to disenfranchised grief include: Sometimes, people believe that a particular person is not capable of grieving.
Loss of an ex-spouse is disenfranchised due to the lack of a current or ongoing personal relationship between the former couple.
Although the marriage has ended, the relationship has not, and there are ties between the two people that will forever be there including: shared children, mutual friendships, and financial connections.
Secondly, disenfranchised grief means society does not recognize the death or loss; therefore, the griever does not receive strong social support and may be isolated.