Julia Rush's diary: coping with loss in the early nineteenth century

Julia Rush (1759-1848), wife of Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), recorded her thoughts over a 33-year period in an unpublished devotional journal. Many of the entries relate to her experience of the loss of Benjamin Rush. Although the diary is inadequate as a source of understanding psychodynamic processes at work, it provides considerable information about Julia Rush's coping behavior. An analysis of this journal reveals that she used three major coping strategies to deal with the loss of her husband: ritualized language, time marking, and cognitive reframing. These devotional meditations also illuminate the way early nineteenth-century religious views shaped Julia Rush's response to loss.