ABSTRACT
Obsessional review or ruminating is normal part of the healing process, where events and memories of the person are reviewed and relived over and over again in one's mind. This review serves a vital need to integrate the emotional and cognitive realities of the death. Many mourners express a wish that they could block this phenomenon out only to discover that this is impossible. Mourners often will ask people around them if they should do away with familiar objects that belonged to the deceased. The experience of grief, by its very nature creates a turning inward on the part of the mourner. This temporary self-focus is necessary for psychological survival. Transient thoughts of suicide appear to be a normal and common part of the experience of grief. Obviously, if the self-focus becomes prolonged the person may be protecting self from sharing the grief outside of oneself; therefore, stunting the movement through the experience of grief.
