| Emotional connection with significant others preserved (“I-thou” state). |
Self-focused, depressed person feels outcast, alienated, alone. |
| A sense that grief is time-limited; life will eventually be better. |
Time stands still; depression feels limitless, never-ending; time itself is experienced as slowed or stopped. |
| Self esteem and personal potency generally well-preserved; guilt, if present, is focused on what was or was not done for the deceased. |
Person experiences self loathing, guilt, low self esteem, sense of personal impotence; guilt is focused on “sins,” or being a worthless, unforgiveable person. |
| Rarely suicidal; if thoughts of dying are present, they are focused on joining the deceased. |
Often suicidal; thoughts of dying focused on not being worthy of living. |
| Grief is mixed with positive feelings, such as pleasant memories of a lost loved one. |
Person lacks positive feelings or memories; may feel ambivalent, conflicted over loss. |
| Grieving person can be consoled (e.g., by friends, literature). |
Person often inconsolable; mood often autonomous, impervious to others. |
| Dysphoria often experienced in “waves;” circumscribed; often triggered by thoughts, memories of deceased person. |
Dysphoria described as diffuse, “always there” (pervasive); person rarely focused on specific person other than self. |
