Understanding grief and bereavement.

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to outline the theories of grief, explain the terms anticipatory and complicated grief, discuss the role of spirituality at the end of life, and consider factors that contribute to ‘a good death’. Freud1 proposed the original ‘grief work’ theory, which involved the breaking of ties with the deceased, readjusting to new life circumstances, and building new relationships. Kubler-Ross2 proposed the ‘stage theory’ where grief proceeded along a series of predictable stages including shock and denial, anger, resentment and guilt, depression, and finally acceptance. Stroebe and Schut3 proposed a ‘dual-process model’ with grief being a process of oscillation between two modes, a ‘loss orientation’ mode when the griever engages in emotion-focused coping, and a ‘restoration orientation’ mode when the griever engages in problem-focused coping. Bonanno …