“There Is Such a Silence Around It”: Grief, Life, and Identity of Suicide Survivors in Czechia

Experiences and needs of those bereaved by suicide of another person—suicide survivors—are severely under-explored in Czechia. Grounded in the sociology of death, dying, and bereavement, as well as death studies, this paper focuses on the processes of grief, bereavement, and mourning. Drawing on nine in-depth interviews and employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), four key themes emerged: (1) Those, who remained and those, who are gone; (2) Family, friends, and the great silence; (3) Institutional failure and the shifting of agency; and (4) Grief-worthiness and the proper way to mourn. The findings suggest that reconstructing a new identity involves more than the commonly cited emotions of guilt or anger; it also includes feelings such as protectiveness toward the deceased. While bereaved bear the burden of suicide’s stigmatizing nature and may feel abandoned by, or failed by, institutional systems, instances of good practice did occur, albeit despite the system rather than because of it. Finally, survivors’ experiences of disenfranchised grief reflect prevailing societal expectations and norms surrounding bereavement after suicide.