Case study research in a southwestern shelter for homeless men revealed a small, but notable, minority suffering from unresolved grief. The grief of these men was due to the death of a spouse, a child, a parent, or other member of their immediate family, or to a particularly painful divorce, earlier in their lives. Their relationship loss and the consequent grief that they were unable to complete appeared to have robbed them of the will to maintain their social standing in society. The result was drastic downward mobility to a life on the street. Their failure to cope with grief would appear to be due to a dearth of primary relationships in their former and present lives.
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