Mourning and Grief as Healing Processes in Psychotherapy

TL;DRAbstract

The argument developed in this paper can be outlined as follows: relationships are vital for growth, for adults and especially for children; to ensure that we work to maintain relationships, evolution provided for pain on separation, which stimulates behaviours designed to restore the relationship. If the separation is permanent, it is necessary to form other relationships. This requires modifying the attachment to the lost object, a process which involves unlearning of emotional bonds and then learning new bonds to new objects. The process of mourning and the affective state of grief, I believe, assist in this unlearning and new learning. The stages of mourning involve cognitive learning of the reality of the loss; behaviours associated with mourning, such as searching, embody unlearning by extinction; finally, physiological concomitants of grief may influence unlearning by direct effects on neurotransmitters or neurohormones, such as cortisol, ACTH, or norepinephrine. Besides losses

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