Bereavement as a Psychosocial Transition: Processes of Adaptation to Change

There are many ways of construing the psychology of loss. This paper describes one such model, which enlightens some, but not all, aspects of bereavement and needs to be used alongside other models. Loss is one aspect of psychosocial transition, the psychological change that takes place whenever people are faced with the need to undertake a major revision of their assumptions about the world. The paper focuses on the ways in which people change or fail to change their internal model of the world in the face of emergent events. Examples are taken from bereavement, loss of a limb, and the succession of losses that mark the course of terminal illness. Implications for identifying people at risk and mitigating that risk are outlined.