ABSTRACT
Mourning consists of two stages. The first is crisis grief, which begins the moment loss occurs or is threatened. The crisis period ends as we assimilate the terrible reality. In fact, the second stage of mourning is just beginning. And so in the moments after a loss, we are launched into the panic of crisis grief—the period in which we move from denial to acceptance of a loss. In 1944, psychiatrist Erich Lindemann published a now-classic paper describing the crisis grief reactions of 101 individuals. If there is a persistent wish during crisis grief, it is to have the loss reversed. A news account following the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, gave a vivid depiction of crisis grief at its most naked. This chapter outlines the phases of crisis grief individually in order to explain the psychological underpinnings.
