Am J Psychiatry 1980; 137:1157-1152
Copyright © 1980 by American Psychiatric Association
Pathological grief and the activation of latent self-images
MJ Horowitz, N Wilner, C Marmar and J Krupnick
The authors studied the case material for patients treated with either
psychoanalysis or brief therapy to examine the basis for the various states
of pathological grief after berevavement. They view these states as
intensifications or unusual prolongations of states found in normal grief
and describe them in terms of the reemergence of self-images and role
relationship models that had been held in check by the existence ofthe
deceased person. This conclusion concerning preexisting mental schemata
leads to an elaboration and partial revision of theories of regression,
ambivalence, and introjection as causes of pathological grief.
