A Sense of 'unrealness' about the Death of a Loved-One:An Exploratory Study of its Role in EmotionalComplications among Bereaved Individuals

摘要

After a loss, some people develop complicated grief (CG) and depression. A recent cognitive-behavioural model postulates that three processes account for such problems: (a) lack of integrationof the loss with implicit autobiographical knowledge about the relationship with the lost person, (b)negative cognitions and (c) avoidance behaviours. In the current study, it was proposed that the 'lackof integration of the loss' is mainly an implicit process, but has an explicit, introspectively accessiblecounterpart in the form of 'a sense of unrealness' that can be defined as a subjective sense ofuncertainty or ambivalence about the irreversibility of the separation. The role of this 'sense ofunrealness' was studied using self-reported data from 397 mourners. Among other things, findingsshowed that items constituting unrealness were distinct from those of CG and depression. In addition,unrealness was significantly associated with CG, when controlling for negative cognitions, avoidanceand concomitant depression.