ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that although a number of theories have been developed to describe and explainS the processes associated with bereavement, none of them can be fully adopted without limiting the aspects one has to take into consideration. It outlines the theories of John Bowlby, P. Marris and C. M. Parkes. Bowlby formulated the first influential theory on attachment and loss, which in a number of aspects explicitly rejects Freudian theory. Bowlby draws an analogy between young animal’s and children’s reactions to separation from their mothers and reactions to loss in bereaved adults. Parkes’ theory is partly influenced by Bowlby, with whom he has worked, but like Marris, he emphasizes the process of cognitive restructuring. Although the contents of a task may be of a dynamical nature, the character of these models is primarily descriptive, rather than explanatory. The process of adaptation in this view is not an autonomous one, which unwinds itself in a ‘natural’ series of changes.
