Common Terms in Grief and Loss
From Guldin:
Everything meaningful to us and with which we connect or find meaning can be lost. The experience of loss and grief is widespread, common, and natural, which is why it is an experience that unites humans. Only the grieving person can tell us when they experience a loss and what this loss means to them. Grief must always be seen in this way.
How one grieves is as unique as one’s fingerprint. It is not comparable and has no timeline.
The awareness of all the different losses in our lives can help us connect with ourselves and find a deeper understanding of our existence.
Loss is considered the ultimate limitation of human existence. It is an unavoidable event in life.
According to Harris (see complete reference below), a loss can be defined as an experience where there is a change in circumstance, perception, or experience where it would be impossible to return to the way things were before.
Death loss is the loss by the physical death of another human or pet.
Non-death loss is a loss that results from a loss experience where no one has physically died. Examples of non-death losses can include relationships, health, finances, jobs, and others (Harris).
Ambiguous loss is a loss that remains unclear and without official verification or immediate resolution. People can be physically gone but kept psychologically present or physically present but psychologically gone. People feel grief, but because no death has occurred or been verified, it is often unrecognized or criticized as premature. Ambiguous losses lead to disenfranchised grief because others, including healthcare providers, family, and friends, do not see the loss as credible or worthy of grief (Boss).
Grief is the response to a loss. It can be expressed emotionally, cognitively (thinking), spiritually, behaviorally, or as a physical response. Grief is personal and individual and can be associated with actual, perceived, or anticipated losses, both from death and non-death events. How intense someone’s grief is depends on many things, such as the meaning of the loss to the individual. It is also important to remember that not all losses result in grief (Servaty-Seib).
Disenfranchised Grief is grief that people experience when they experience a loss that is not or cannot be openly acknowledged, socially sanctioned, or publicly mourned. In these situations, people are not afforded the right to grieve (Servaty-Seib).
Mourning is often referred to as the social aspects of grief, for example, the cultural or religious norms and the patterns and rituals through which people are recognized and acknowledged as bereaved and expressing grief (Servaty-Seib).
Bereavement is the objective state of loss. If an individual experiences a loss, they are considered bereaved. Bereavement refers to the fact that a loss has occurred; grief is the response one has to that loss (Servaty-Seib).
Palliative Care specializes in caring for people with a serious or life-limiting illness, regardless of prognosis. Through the provision of expert management of physical, social, emotional, and spiritual symptoms, the goal is to improve quality of life and, when needed, assist with medical decision-making. Palliative care is not the same as hospice.
Hospice is Interprofessional team care focused on relieving distress and symptoms, including emotional and spiritual pain, for people in their last six months of life. Hospice prioritizes comfort and quality of life and is an alternative to life-prolonging therapies. It is provided in the patient’s primary residence, including long-term care facilities, private homes, and, under special circumstances, acute care hospitals.
Thanatology is the study of death, dying, grief, and loss. It is both an academic and applied discipline
References
Boss, P. (2021). The myth of closure: Ambiguous loss in a time of pandemic and change. W. W. Norton & Company.
Guldin, M.-B., & Leget, C. (2024). Loss, grief and existential awareness: An integrative approach (1st ed.). Routledge.
Harris, D. L. (2019). Introduction. In D. L. Harris (Ed.), Non-death loss and grief context and clinical implications (1st ed.). Routledge.
Servaty-Seib, H. L., & Chapple, H. S. (Eds.). (2021). The handbook of thanatology, third edition: The essential body of knowledge for the study of death, dying, and bereavement (3rd ed.). Association for Death Education and Counseling.
