Grief, mourning and bereavement: In the wake of loss

Gil-Juliá, Beatriz; Ballester-Arnal, Rafael

doi:10.1075/ivitra.26.03gil

Part of

Discourses on the Edges of Life
Edited by Vicent Salvador †, Adéla Kotátková and Ignasi Clemente
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 26] 2020
► pp. 35–46

In the wake of loss

Grief, mourning and bereavement

Beatriz Gil-Juliá | Universitat Jaume I

Rafael Ballester-Arnal | Universitat Jaume I

The loss of a loved one may be considered as one of the major life-event stressors not only by its near inevitability but also by the high likelihood that we will go through it more than once in the course of a normal life span. Most people experience the loss as a natural response to a loved one’s death. Nevertheless, for a significant minority this process can be complicated. In the wake of loss, grief, mourning and bereavement appear to be synonymous terms although they differ in their clinical manifestations. Tackling the nuances linked to these concepts and the main issues involved in an adaptive or non-adaptive course of adjustment to the loss will be the aim of this chapter.

Keywords: loss, grief experience, psychological adjustment, coping, complicated grief

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Conceptualizing the grieving process
3.Understanding grief experience
4.Adaptive versus non-adaptive course of adjustment to the loss: The complicated grief
References

Published online: 9 April 2020

https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.26.03gil

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