Seeking closure.

THE PHRASE "seeking closure" has become widely used without being widely noticed. And the phrase is "seeking" closure, not "searching for" closure, "looking for" closure, or "finding" closure. I felt sure this is a metaphor, but didn't know for what. I decided to take a closer look at how we use this phrase.

"Closure" is a term from gestalt psychology. It refers to an automatic process in our perception where we close up incomplete figures, where we "connect the dots," and fill in the gaps. A classic example is a picture of three dots in a straight line. We tend to see a line, not three separate dots. If the three dots are in the shape of a triangle, we see the triangle, not the separate dots. We have applied the psychological process of closure and formed a whole, or gestalt, out of the three dots.

When closure is blocked, we feel anxiety, and are motivated to try to reduce that anxiety. Our minds like to form wholes, gestalts. When this process is frustrated, we set about "seeking closure." In the complex and confusing world of the early 21st Century, we are constantly challenged to put together the bits and pieces of "information" which deluge our senses. Many times, despite all the information available, "closure" eludes us. Then we may glide off into flights of fancy and fantasy, all the while "seeking closure."

I searched a computer database of news stories (http://web.lexis-nexis.com) for "seeking closure." This was where the specificity of the phrase struck me. Just looking for "closure" produced many news stories about base closings and plant closings. I needed to use "seeking closure" to get at what I wanted.

From January, 2002 through July, 2003, I got 54 "hits" on "seeking closure." Most of the uses of the term involved issues of death. Families of those who died in the 9/11 crashes were "seeking closure." Families of victims of another air crash, the EgyptAir flight that crashed for no apparent reason on October 31, 1999, were also "seeking closure." In both cases, government reports were slow in coming. Puzzling gaps remained in the available information. Sometimes there were no physical remains that could be identified.

In these cases there was no opportunity for rituals which might help provide "closure." We can appreciate the function of funerals and wakes in this light. Some social occasion marks off an ending. A chapter is closed. The story goes on. Many of these unfortunate relatives had to make do with phone calls. A daughter of a woman passenger on the EgyptAir flight told a reporter, "The Rhode Island medical examiner identified the remains. When I got the call, it put a finality to it. Nothing is going to bring my mother back." (Taylor, Jan. 27, 2002.)

Courtrooms were also the scene of "seeking closure" in several stories. The daughter of a woman killed by a drunk driver in Ohio told a reporter she was "still seeking closure" for her mother's death. The woman was upset that the judge let the driver go home after he pied guilty, but before he was sentenced. It turns out that the driver had "a terminal liver disease and other medical problems," and the judge did not want the county to have to pay for his care. But the daughter was still unhappy about the decision. "... Just like anyone who has ever lost anybody close to them, I want the person who did it to be punished," she said. (Horton, Jan. 14, 2003.)

"Closure" in this case meant punishment. Of course, the ultimate punishment is the death penalty, and I have seen "closure" used to justify the death penalty. This is a difficult issue, driven by emotion and fear. But I wonder how helpful such "closure" really is, in the long run.

As I looked through the news stories containing the phrase "seeking closure" I continued to wonder what this phrase meant. It is being used as a metaphor for something deep, something lacking in the human condition. The unfortunate people portrayed in these stories clearly had gaps in their lives. One Louisiana woman was "seeking closure" by pleading with the public for information about her son's killer. A sexual abuse victim of a Catholic priest was "seeking closure" by filing a lawsuit. Families of soldiers missing in wars as far back as World War II meet yearly to discuss the Department of Defense's ongoing investigations. Even Presidential candidate Howard Dean went to Laos seeking "closure" about his brother's death there in the Vietnam War.

Overwhelmingly, these are stories of sadness, grief, and loss. "Closure" in these cases can mean many things: simply knowing what happened, justice, revenge, ritual acknowledgment of pain and loss. After "closure," the implication is that we can put this behind us, get over it, and move on. But can we? Is life that tidy? Or does the pain of the death of a loved one linger on, without any real closure?

I think the phrase "seeking closure" is a metaphor for an impossible state of affairs within the human condition. "Closure" will supposedly give us rest, relief, an ending of this particular sorrow. But this does not really happen. Sorrows do not end, they just slowly fade in intensity. Perhaps that is why we are always "seeking" closure. We never really find it.

REFERENCES

Horton, J. (Jan. 14, 2003). "Driver Admits Killing Three, DUI." Cleveland Plain Dealer. B3.

Taylor, M. (Jan. 27, 2002). "All But Forgotten EgyptAir Crash Record Languishing in Diplomatic Limbo." San Francisco Chronicle. A1.

RAYMOND GOZZI, JR. *

* Dr. Raymond Gozzi, Jr., is Associate Professor in the TV-Radio Department at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY. His most recent book, The Power of Metaphor in the Age of Electronic Media, Hampton Press (1999), is available from ISGS.