ABSTRACT
At first glance acute grief would not seem to be a clinical or psychiatric disorder in the strict sense of the word, but rather a normal reaction to a distressing situation. However, the understanding of reactions to traumatic experiences whether or not they represent clear-cut neuroses has become of ever-increasing importance to the psychiatrist. While there has been recognition for some time that certain commonly recurring events have important psychological and situational components, Lindemann’s unique contribution has been to provide a theoretical framework by which these events and the human responses to them (adaptive and maladaptive) can be conceptualized, studied and treated. The situational problem conception suggests that casework problems are not really divided into problems that are external on the one hand or internal on the other; it supports the idea that all casework problems have a significant internal aspect.
