Three Years Later: Grief,View of Life,and Personal Crisis after Death of a Family Member

Abstract

In an initial study, 19 persons were interviewed during the first year after the sudden death of a family member. Seventeen were interviewed again three years after their bereavement. Participants were divided into four groups, representing patterns of crisis behavior: boundless, spontaneous, emerging, and suppressed grief. Characteristics of the four groups were still discernible after three years. Those with spontaneous and emerging grief grew to cope in similar ways. In the initial study, a close correlation had been found between personality, view of life, and response to crisis, respectively, an observation that still held true after three years. No specific doctrine or belief system could be linked to the coping process, but a connection did exist between view of life, as expressed through basic attitudes, and the grieving process.