Traumatic grief: The history of the concept’s origin and main content
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33910/1992-6464-2026-219-190-199Keywords:
traumatic grief, complicated grief, pathological grief, prolonged grief disorder, PTSD, childhood traumatic griefAbstract
Introduction. Many of the current socio-political challenges of our time carry a traumatic experience associated with experiencing loss, which generates the phenomenon of traumatic grief (TG). However, this phenomenon is practically not described in Russian science. The purpose of the article is to conceptualize the concept of TG, tracing the history of its origin and identifying specific differences from complex grief.
Materials and methods: theoretical analysis of foreign literature for 1999-2025, presented in the PubMed electronic database using the keyword «traumatic grief».
The results of the study. The emergence of the term «traumatic grief» in 1999 was initially associated with an attempt to clarify the content of complex grief. This revealed a gap in the study of grief, but at the same time made it very difficult to understand this phenomenon. This has defined two main directions in the conceptualization of TG: 1) as a synonym for prolonged grief disorder, and 2) as an independent construct. At the moment, due to the adoption of ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR, research on traumatic grief in the first area will be irrelevant. TG as an independent construct is understood at this stage of the study as a condition resulting from the death of a loved one and including symptoms similar to PTSD. This concept is also being developed within the framework of child psychotraumatology. The main difference between TG is its trigger — the experience of fear associated with the death of a loved one, which makes it difficult for grieving people to come to terms with the loss, since the memory of the deceased serves as a reminder of trauma.
Conclusion. TG’s research reflects the existing interest of psychologists and psychiatrists in experiencing trauma and grief, especially in cases of mass traumatic events, which creates the basis for continuing work in this direction.
References
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