Does a Scientist grieve differently than another person?

Photo by Amplitude Magazin on Unsplash

I was recently made aware of a fiction author whose narrative of a new book was based on an interesting question regarding scientists and emotions.  The author Nell Freudenberger wrote a book about a female astrophysicist with the intention of answering the following question:


Does a scientist grieve loss differently than another person?



During her exploration, she interviewed many physicists for the content of her book.  She encountered one in which she asked the question above:

I wanted to write about a scientist who experiences a loss and how she approaches grief. I thought she would experience grief in a more scientific or rational way than the rest of us do. But by the time I got to the end of the book, I thought she might be prone to the same sort of magical thing we all have around loss and grief. I asked Imre if there was some part of daily life that he approached differently because he was a physicist. It took him a long time to think of something and he said finally, “Well, maybe flying, I’m not afraid of flying because I know how airplanes work and the risks involved. It’s much scarier to me to get into a car.” I did start to believe that a part of Helen could, if not believe in a ghost, at least question the events that are happening around her friend’s death in the same way that you or I might do—the same sort of magical thinking where the phone rings and you think maybe it’s the person calling, even though you know the person’s gone.

I am here to follow up with more information.  I am a scientist.  I go to the bathroom.  I have to eat occasionally when I am not working or playing.  I have to exercise to relieve stress.  I have anxiety at times.  I can laugh and cry.  I love to watch people when I am sitting at commercial venues.   Yes, I am human just like you.


Remember, we are all scientists at heart.