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Grief

This entry describes grief, a concept that is distinct from yet closely related to bereavement and mourning. It discusses the subtypes of grief and the ways individuals grieve in response to four major losses experienced over the life course: child, sibling, spouse, and parental death.

Grief and Its Subtypes

Grief encompasses the sadness, yearning, distress, and physiological reactions experienced with the loss of an attachment figure. Although most scholars focus on grief as a reaction to the loss of a significant other, grief may also be a reaction to other important losses, such as the loss of a pet, a cherished social role, a personal capacity (e.g., loss of vision), or even an object to which one was personally attached. Bereavement, by contrast, refers to the objective ...

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