Behavioural approaches to bereavement

Persons who get “hung up” in an unresolved grief reaction appear to be similar in many ways to those who develop phobias. As behaviour therapy approaches to phobias have been highly successful, similar tactics have been tried out with persons involved in pathological grief, with gratifying success. The characteristics of grief reactions are briefly described, as is Eysenck's theory on the development and maintenance of phobias. This theory is applied to explain how and why some people develop pathological grief reactions. A modified flooding technique of confrontation with pain-evoking stimuli is described and some results are presented. The psychoanalytic literature gives indications as to what kinds of emotional reactions the therapist can expect.