Types of grief

 

Type	What it means	Example
Common/normal grief	A natural response to significant loss. Feelings can include sadness, anger, shock, numbness, guilt, or loneliness.	Death of someone close
Anticipatory grief	Grief occurring before an expected loss.	A family grieving while a loved one has a terminal illness
Cumulative grief	Multiple losses occurring close together, with little opportunity to recover between them.	Several family deaths or major life changes within a short period
Ambiguous loss	A loss without clear resolution or closure.	A missing person or a loved one who is physically present but profoundly changed by dementia
Disenfranchised grief	Grief that is not adequately recognized, socially supported, or considered legitimate by others.	Grieving a pet, former partner, miscarriage, or loss that others minimize
Nonfinite loss	Grief associated with an ongoing or irreversible difference between the life someone expected and the life they actually have.	Permanent disability, infertility, or a chronic change in functioning
Prolonged grief	Grief that remains persistent and causes significant impairment beyond the expected cultural/contextual period.	Continuing severe grief that substantially interferes with everyday functioning

One important correction: “complicated grief”

Complicated grief is an older/general term that you will still encounter in psychology and bereavement literature. However, the formal diagnostic terminology used today is Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD).

In the DSM-5-TR, PGD is recognized as a mental disorder involving persistent, pervasive grief and associated symptoms following the death of someone close, with specific duration and impairment criteria.

So I wouldn't write:

“Complicated grief = grief that doesn't follow the normal healing path.”

I'd instead write:

Complicated grief is a broad/older term that has been used for unusually persistent or impairing grief. Current diagnostic systems use the more specific term Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD).

Grief isn't a straight-line process

This is particularly important when studying grief.

People don't necessarily go:

Denial → Anger → Bargaining → Depression → Acceptance

and then finish grieving.

Those five stages from Kübler-Ross were originally developed in relation to people facing terminal illness and have often been incorrectly presented as a universal sequence for bereavement.

Real grief can be much more unpredictable. Someone may feel relatively okay one day and then experience intense sadness months later because something reminds them of the person, relationship, home, job, ability, or life they lost.

Grief isn't limited to death

This is probably one of the most useful ideas to take from these notes.

Loss can involve:

• death of a loved one
• death of a pet
• divorce or relationship breakdown
• loss of employment
• moving away from home
• loss of independence
• loss of physical or cognitive abilities
• diagnosis of a significant illness or disability
• infertility
• loss of an expected future
• loss of friendships
• changes in family relationships
• loss of identity or role

So grief is a response to loss, not exclusively a response to death.

That also explains why nonfinite loss, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief are useful concepts: they help explain forms of grief that can otherwise be overlooked.

A useful distinction for your course

You can think about grief at three different levels:

Normal/common grief
→ a natural response to loss.

Different circumstances of grief
→ anticipatory, cumulative, ambiguous, disenfranchised, nonfinite, etc.

Grief that becomes clinically significant
→ persistent symptoms and impairment that may meet criteria for Prolonged Grief Disorder.

That prevents us from making the mistake of treating every intense or unusual grief reaction as a mental disorder. Grief itself is a normal human experience; the clinical question is whether the person's symptoms, duration, circumstances, and level of impairment meet specific diagnostic criteria.

Type	What it means	Example
Common/normal grief	A natural response to significant loss. Feelings can include sadness, anger, shock, numbness, guilt, or loneliness.	Death of someone close
Anticipatory grief	Grief occurring before an expected loss.	A family grieving while a loved one has a terminal illness
Cumulative grief	Multiple losses occurring close together, with little opportunity to recover between them.	Several family deaths or major life changes within a short period
Ambiguous loss	A loss without clear resolution or closure.	A missing person or a loved one who is physically present but profoundly changed by dementia
Disenfranchised grief	Grief that is not adequately recognized, socially supported, or considered legitimate by others.	Grieving a pet, former partner, miscarriage, or loss that others minimize
Nonfinite loss	Grief associated with an ongoing or irreversible difference between the life someone expected and the life they actually have.	Permanent disability, infertility, or a chronic change in functioning
Prolonged grief	Grief that remains persistent and causes significant impairment beyond the expected cultural/contextual period.	Continuing severe grief that substantially interferes with everyday functioning

One important correction: “complicated grief”

Complicated grief is an older/general term that you will still encounter in psychology and bereavement literature. However, the formal diagnostic terminology used today is Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD).

In the DSM-5-TR, PGD is recognized as a mental disorder involving persistent, pervasive grief and associated symptoms following the death of someone close, with specific duration and impairment criteria.

So I wouldn't write:

“Complicated grief = grief that doesn't follow the normal healing path.”

I'd instead write:

Complicated grief is a broad/older term that has been used for unusually persistent or impairing grief. Current diagnostic systems use the more specific term Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD).

Grief isn't a straight-line process

This is particularly important when studying grief.

People don't necessarily go:

Denial → Anger → Bargaining → Depression → Acceptance

and then finish grieving.

Those five stages from Kübler-Ross were originally developed in relation to people facing terminal illness and have often been incorrectly presented as a universal sequence for bereavement.

Real grief can be much more unpredictable. Someone may feel relatively okay one day and then experience intense sadness months later because something reminds them of the person, relationship, home, job, ability, or life they lost.

Grief isn't limited to death

This is probably one of the most useful ideas to take from these notes.

Loss can involve:

• death of a loved one
• death of a pet
• divorce or relationship breakdown
• loss of employment
• moving away from home
• loss of independence
• loss of physical or cognitive abilities
• diagnosis of a significant illness or disability
• infertility
• loss of an expected future
• loss of friendships
• changes in family relationships
• loss of identity or role

So grief is a response to loss, not exclusively a response to death.

That also explains why nonfinite loss, ambiguous loss, and disenfranchised grief are useful concepts: they help explain forms of grief that can otherwise be overlooked.

A useful distinction for your course

You can think about grief at three different levels:

Normal/common grief
→ a natural response to loss.

Different circumstances of grief
→ anticipatory, cumulative, ambiguous, disenfranchised, nonfinite, etc.

Grief that becomes clinically significant
→ persistent symptoms and impairment that may meet criteria for Prolonged Grief Disorder.

That prevents us from making the mistake of treating every intense or unusual grief reaction as a mental disorder. Grief itself is a normal human experience; the clinical question is whether the person's symptoms, duration, circumstances, and level of impairment meet specific diagnostic criteria.