ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to advance the psychology of loss by presenting a framework for loss into which much of the existing knowledge can be integrated and still encourages the reader to explore many specific areas of loss in greater depth. Loss is not new but has always been part of change. Hence loss is an integral part of understanding all adverse life events. Grief, as the reaction to loss, can manifest itself in many ways in a person: physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually. Mourning in the situation of bereavement, and grieving in other losses, represents the internal process of moving from a state of distress and disorganization to one of being able to live in a changed world with some sense of a valued quality of life. Caring for loss as an understanding of the deeply internal world of another within their lived experience will always be both an art and a science beautifully and intrinsically bound together.
