Grief is a Form of Love

Abstract

Grieving precipitates a variety of reactions to the loss of a cherished loved one, including complicated grief (CG), a protracted, debilitating, life-threatening response to loss. A crisis of faith in the context of bereavement that includes the collapse or erosion of the griever's sense of relationship to God and/or the faith community has been termed complicated spiritual grief (CSG). Thus, understanding the association between CG and CSG is important for clinicians, spiritual leaders, and researchers who seek to develop, implement, and evaluate psycho-spiritual interventions to help grievers who are suffering spiritually following loss. The Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG) is an easy-to-use, multidimensional measure of spiritual struggle following loss that can be used in a variety of clinical settings and with a range of research samples. The ICSG's psychometric properties are established and an 18-item scale, including two subscales, Insecurity with God and Disruption in religious practice.