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Anticipatory Grief and Widowhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Paula J. Clayton
Affiliation:
Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
James A. Halikas
Affiliation:
The University of British Columbia, Health Sciences Centre Hospital, Vancouver 8, Canada
William L. Maurice
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Eli Robins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.

Extract

Lindemann (6) first used the term ‘anticipatory grief’. It referred to the separation of two people with one anticipating the death of the other and preparing for it to such an extent that on the return of the other there is rejection rather than happy acceptance. In his example a soldier returning from combat complained that his wife no longer loved him and was seeking a divorce. After seeing the man, Lindemann attributed the problem to the wife's ‘anticipatory grief. It seems there could be other explanations to his example.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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References

1 Clayton, P. J., Desmarais, L., and Winokur, G. (1968). ‘A study of normal bereavement.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 125(2), 168–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2 Clayton, P. J., Halikas, J. A., and Maurice, W. L. (1971). ‘The bereavement of the widowed.’ Diseases of the Nervous System, 32(9), 597604.Google Scholar
3 Clayton, P. J. (1972). ‘The depression of widowhood.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 71–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4 Friedman, S. B., Chodoff, P., Mason, J. W., and Hamburg, D. A. (1963). ‘Behavioral observations on parents anticipating the death of a child.’ Pediatrics, 32(4), Part 1, 610–25.Google Scholar
5 Futterman, E. H., Hoffman, I., and Sabshein, M. (1970). ‘Parental anticipatory mourning.’ (Mimeo copy.) Google Scholar
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