Grief is the affective response to an experienced loss. It testifies to the worth of what was lost and is an expression of personal depth. Grief belongs to the class of intentional feelings: it is directed at an objective value — the lost person, the relationship, that which cannot be brought back.
Ontologically, grief is not a symptom or a defect, but a testimony: whoever grieves gives expression to love for what was lost. A person who misses nothing and no one does not have more strength, but less personality.
Ontological classification
Superordinate concept: Intentional feeling
Ontological relations:
- is affective response to: loss of an objective value
- testifies to: dignity and worth of the lost person
- belongs to: person-behavior in the Second Dimension
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: What Is Human Personhood? (German)
Grief models and model critique
How does grief unfold? Three models shape the international discussion — with very different degrees of empirical support:
- Bowlby-Parkes phase model (1972/1980) — grounded in attachment theory, four phases, non-linear
- Worden task model (1982/2009) — tasks instead of stages, the grieving person is active
- Kübler-Ross model (1969) — not sufficiently supported empirically, originally formulated for the dying
For a detailed presentation with critique, see Grief models.
The personal-ontological point
The Personalist Norm demands that the person be affirmed for her own sake. Grief is a concrete realization of this norm: with its pain it says that the deceased was not replaceable and is not replaceable. Grief accompaniment is therefore not the therapy of a defect, but the accompaniment of a person who in grieving gives expression to her love.
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.