Grief is one of the most painful experiences you can face in life. It is also one of the most taboo in Western societies. It represents both the ” painful emotional and emotional reaction following the death of a significant other “And” the intrapsychic process of detachment and renunciation of the irreparably lost being to allow future investments. »

Even if there is a process common to all bereavements, each bereavement is unique, singular, and depends on the relationship that existed between the deceased and the bereaved. Usually, bereavement lasts only a short time, but sometimes it drags on, leading to psychological and somatic disorders that are often chronic and may justify a specialist medical consultation. Certain pathologies related to the personality of the bereaved may then appear. Michel Hanus and Marie-Frédérique Bacqué have identified four.

1) Hysterical mourning. The bereaved person identifies pathologically with the deceased by presenting physical or behavioral attitudes characteristic of the latter. There are also self-destructive behaviors or suicide attempts in order to join the missing.

2) Obsessive mourning. This pathology is marked, as its name suggests, by obsessions. A series of repetitive thoughts mixing old desires for death and mental images of the deceased gradually invade the bereaved. These obsessions lead to a psychasthenia characterized by fatigue, a mental struggle at all times, insomnia. They can also lead to suicide attempts and “homelessness” phenomena.

3) Manic mourning. In this case, the bereaved remains in a phase of denial after the death, in particular with regard to the emotional consequences of the death. This apparent absence of suffering, which is often even accompanied by good humor or over-excitement, then turns into aggressiveness, then into melancholy.

4) The melancholy mourning. In this form of depression, we find an exacerbation of guilt and worthlessness in the bereaved. He moped while covering himself with reproaches, insults and incitement to punishment. As the risk of suicide is greatly increased, it is sometimes necessary to hospitalize the mournful bereaved.

5) Traumatic grief. It results in a serious depression little marked on the psychic level but more on the behavioral level. The death of the loved one overflows the defenses of the bereaved and produces in him a very strong anxiety. The risk factors for such bereavement are the early loss of parents, the number of bereavements experienced (especially the number of “significant” bereavements experienced) and the violence or brutality of these bereavements. 57% of widows and widowers present a traumatic bereavement 6 weeks after death. This number drops to 6% thirteen months later and remains stable at 25 months.

It is a complication of bereavement that generates more c and heart troubles in those affected, which testifies to the impact of such a phenomenon on the immune system. Bereaved people also tend to adopt addictive behaviors such as the consumption of alcohol, psychotropic drugs (especially anxiolytics) and tobacco.

6) Post-traumatic grief. This type of mourning can occur when the loss of a loved one occurs at the same time as a collective threat of which the bereaved was a part: road accident, survival during a disaster with many deaths, occurring in people who almost boarded the failed plane or boat with others, etc. It is the idea of ​​sharing a ” potentially common fate and escape it by luck Which gives proximity to the victims, and in particular the deceased. The bereaved feels both helplessness and the guilt of having survived and perceives the death of the deceased as his own: he therefore urgently needs psychotherapeutic support.