AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON BEREAVEMENT RELATED CONCEPTS

This paper reports on part of a study which was aimed at assessing the views of leading researchers, theorists or clinicians working in the field of bereavement on key issues including, as reported here, concep ts of different forms of grief as well as favoured theoretical orienta tions. Of a range of conceptual models the most favoured. by a large m argin, were attachment theory and the psychodynamic model. The views o f the ''experts'' were canvassed with respect to the use of seven sele cted terms used to denote some variant of the grieving process. There was, on the part of the respondents, reasonable support for the syndro mes of ''delayed'', ''chronic'', ''anticipatory'' and ''absent'' grief . ''Inhibited'' and ''unresolved'' grief tended to be described using one of the four terms already supported, while the use of the term ''d istorted grief'' attracted little support.