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Anticipatory Grief: A Psychosocial Concept Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Robert Fulton
Affiliation:
Center for Death Education and Research, University of Minnesota, 1167 Social Science Tower, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, U.S.A.
David Jay Gottesman
Affiliation:
Center for Death Education and Research, University of Minnesota, 1167 Social Science Tower, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, U.S.A.

Summary

Formerly anticipatory grief was viewed as a potential coping mechanism for a prospective loss. More recently it has been studied in preventive psychiatry as a determinant of the severity of post-mortem grief. The authors in a critical analysis of methodological and theoretical inconsistencies recommend a reconsideration of the concept within a psychosocial context.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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