Lists Without "And" [duplicate]

I just came across this sentence:

Everyone has lost his country, his home, his equilibrium.

I've seen such structure used numerous times but I'm not sure how this works. What effect does it have on the sentence to remove and before the final item of the list? What rule of grammar makes this sentence grammatically correct? In terms of grammar, how do the two sentences below differ?

He sat there thinking about the past, the future.

He sat there thinking about the past and the future.

My guess was that instead of creating a list, such sentences added bracketing phrases/clauses. I'm not sure if that's the case, though, since the information added sometimes appears to be unrelated to what has come before and essential to the sentence. For instance, thoughts about the future are more important than thoughts about the past in the sentence above.

It is merely a form of emphasis. The most common sequencing is a list with an and separating the last item from the one immediately proceeding. Using the less common form without and is a way of suggesting the list is important.

I lost my money, my job, my good name. [I lost everything]

Sometimes it is used to suggest a list increasing in value. Often, when spoken, the last term is emphasized (spoken louder or with a rising inflection).

He bought a Jaguar, a company, a country!

The repeat of the article or the possessive pronoun is also commonly used in this type of construction for emphasis.

The omission of and is a stylistic device, which allows the writer to suggest the list not definitive, but might continue.