ABSTRACT
The author's own clinical experience would suggest that anticipatory grief is experienced differently by different families. Anticipatory grief is used to mean any grief occurring prior to a loss; as distinguished from the grief which occurs at or after the loss. Historically, investigators of this concept of anticipatory grief thought that prolonged illness helped prepare survivors for the death in ways that eased the grief when the death actually occurred. However, these investigators did observe that the process of anticipatory grief does allow for less of an assault on the mourner's adaptive capacities. Fulton and Gottesman have suggested that anticipatory grief has at times been confused with what they term forewarning of loss. This text sensitively illustrates how this phenomenon is more complex and impacted by more factors than previously considered. Among topics included in the contents are a review of current literature on the topic, clinical interventions, developmental issues, and practical considerations.
