The Effect of External Circumstances and Internal Factors on the Experience of Bereavement

Parkes's study of widows did not stop at simply identifying the four phases of mourning. He observed that the outcome of the grief is affected by certain factors in such a predictableway thatthey can becalled detenninants ofgrief. Some of these determinants not only make the grief more complicated but also more prolonged. These determinants have been usefully summarised by Worden (1983) and in this chapter we shall focus on the determinants themselves. In section IV we will consider ways of working with people grappling with some of these particularly complicated kinds of grief.