Editing Grief (section)

== Bereavement science ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1996-036-01, Flüchtlingsfrau mit Wägelchen.jpg|thumb|Grief can be caused by the loss of one's home and possessions, as occurs with [[refugee]]s.]]

=== Bonanno's four trajectories of grief ===
{{Main|George Bonanno}}

George Bonanno, a professor of [[clinical psychology]] at [[Columbia University]], conducted more than two decades of scientific studies on grief and [[Psychological trauma|trauma]]. Subjects of his studies number in the several thousand and include people who have suffered losses in the U.S. and cross-cultural studies in various countries around the world, such as Israel, [[Bosnia-Herzegovina]], and China. His subjects suffered losses through war, [[terrorism]], deaths of children, premature deaths of spouses, [[sexual abuse]], childhood diagnoses of AIDS, and other potentially devastating loss events or potential trauma events.

His findings include that a natural resilience is the main component of grief and trauma reactions.<ref name="americanPsychologistpdf"/> The first researcher to use pre-loss data, he outlined four trajectories of grief.<ref name="americanPsychologistpdf"/> Bonanno's work has also demonstrated that absence of grief or trauma symptoms is a healthy outcome, rather than something to be feared as has been the thought and practice until his research.<ref name="SA_NTG" /> Because grief responses can take many forms, including laughter, celebration, and bawdiness, in addition to [[sadness]],<ref name="nytimes1"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.giftofireland.com/Irishwakes.htm|title=The Irish Wake Tradition – Exploring Irish Wakes|date=13 February 2012|access-date=9 April 2011|archive-date=13 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113203047/http://www.giftofireland.com/Irishwakes.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Bonanno coined the phrase "coping ugly" to describe the idea that some forms of [[Coping (psychology)|coping]] may seem counter intuitive.<ref name="SA_NTG" /> Bonanno has found that resilience is natural to humans, suggesting that it cannot be "taught" through specialized programs<ref name="SA_NTG" /> and that there is virtually no existing research with which to design resilience training, nor is there existing research to support major investment in such things as military resilience training programs.<ref name="SA_NTG" />
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The four trajectories are as follows:
* ''Resilience'': "The ability of adults in otherwise normal circumstances who are exposed to an isolated and potentially highly disruptive event, such as the death of a close relation or a violent or life-threatening situation, to maintain relatively stable, healthy levels of psychological and physical functioning" as well as "the capacity for generative experiences and positive emotions".
* ''Recovery'': When "normal functioning temporarily gives way to threshold or sub-threshold [[psychopathology]] (e.g., symptoms of depression or [[post-traumatic stress disorder]], or PTSD), usually for a period of at least several months, and then gradually returns to pre-event levels".
* ''Chronic dysfunction'': Prolonged suffering and inability to function, usually lasting several years or longer.
* ''Delayed grief or trauma'': When adjustment seems normal but then distress and symptoms increase months later. Researchers have not found evidence of [[delayed grief]], but delayed [[Psychological trauma|trauma]] appears to be a genuine phenomenon.

=== "Five stages" model ===
{{Main|Kübler-Ross model}}

The [[Kübler-Ross model]], commonly known as the five stages of grief, describes a [[hypothesis]] first introduced by [[Elisabeth Kübler-Ross]] in her 1969 book, ''On Death and Dying''.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Nuland|first=Sherwin B.|author-link =Sherwin B. Nuland|date=2004-09-06|title=Appreciation: Dr. ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,995057,00.html|access-date=2023-03-10|issn=0040-781X}}</ref> Based on the uncredited earlier work of John Bowlby and Colin Murray-Parkes, Kübler-Ross actually applied the stages to people who were dying, not people who were grieving.

The five stages are:
# [[denial]]
# [[anger]]
# [[bargaining]]
# [[Depression (mood)|depression]]
# [[acceptance]]

This [[model]] found limited empirical support in a study by Maciejewski et al.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1001/jama.297.7.716 |title=An Empirical Examination of the Stage Theory of Grief |year=2007 |last1=MacIejewski |first1=P. K. |last2=Zhang |first2=B. |last3=Block |first3=S. D. |last4=Prigerson |first4=H. G. |journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |volume=297 |issue=7 |pages=716–23 |pmid=17312291|doi-access=free }}</ref> That is that the sequence was correct although Acceptance was highest at all points throughout the person's experience. The research of [[George Bonanno]], however, is acknowledged as debunking the five stages of grief because his large body of peer-reviewed studies show that the vast majority of people who have experienced a loss are resilient and that there are multiple trajectories following loss.