ABSTRACT
A chain of emotional reactions is set in motion, which is often accompanied by shifts in one's sense of personal identity and in one's relationship to others. This chapter begins by delineating the affective and cognitive aspects of normal grief. It discusses the frozen and maladaptive forms of grief, as well as other pathological responses to losing someone to death. The chapter explains the implications of the foregoing material to the conduct of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. It highlights the areas that merit scrutiny and unresolved questions that still exist in this realm. Scrutinizing bereavement with the characteristic lens of theorizing, Brenner felt that the usual symptoms of grief are not primary phenomena but are defensive reactions. At times, the turmoil of bereavement is masked by sundry neurotic symptoms or by resorting to alcohol or other psychoactive substances.
