ABSTRACT
There are wide differences across and within cultures in the ways people mourn. There is psychiatric evidence that extreme repression of grief can be harmful. When this is the case people may benefit from opportunities and permission to grieve. Conversely those who become preoccupied and obsessed with grief may need opportunities and permission to put their grief aside and help to review and re-plan their lives.
The strength and quality of attachments influence the reaction when these attachments end. Societies with large, extended family networks and shared living conditions may grieve less and cope better with bereavement than those in which small families and low mortality rates make death particularly traumatic. Systems of belief and the rituals that accompany bereavement may be helpful or harmful.
