Job loss: Hard times and eroded identity.

Freud (1961) argued that the two great wellsprings of mental health are love and work. If Freud is correct, then job loss-the loss of one's work-may entail human disruption and pain worthy of our attention and understanding. In what follows we review research and theory on job loss, especially as it influences wellbeing, and in so doing, consider the evidence available concerning Freud's assertion about the importance of work for mental health. We begin by identifying three orienting assumptions that inform our review of job loss. First, we consider job loss to mark a transition in the life course. Life transitions are not discrete events. They are processes marked by a beginning or entry and an ending or exit. As people attempt to negotiate life transitions, their sense of purpose and agency becomes closely tied to their social context (Elder & O'Rand, 1995). Therefore, an analysis of the transition sparked by job loss must pay close attention to both the individual and the social context. Second, we regard job loss as a network event, rather than as a loss with consequences only for the individual. For example, we expect that family ties, friendship networks, and other aspects of the job loser's social network are critically implicated in the job loss and its consequences. Job loss and the many other events it triggers reverberate through the social network and family relationships of the person, sometimes producing a cascade of subsequent strains in personal and family relationships. Third, and building from the last point, we assume that the impact of job loss will differ for the individual depending on the type and quantity of personal and social resources available and how those resources are mobilized to cope with the loss. In line with this assumption, we suggest that intentionally designed organizational efforts to aid the individual in mobilizing their resources to make the transition back to employment can be of real benefit. In the remainder of the chapter we will try to assess the validity of Freud's observation and offer suggestions for how the loss of work may be related to the