mourning

mourning /mourn·ing/ (mor´ning)

1. the normal psychological processes that follow the loss of a loved one; grief is the accompanying emotional state.

2. social expressions of grief, such as funeral and burial services, prayers, or other rituals.

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Mourning

The public expression of bereavement; it may include funerals and other rituals, special clothing, and symbolic gestures.

Mentioned in: Bereavement

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mourning

[mōr′ning]

Etymology: AS, murnan, to mourn

a response to the loss of a loved object. It is through mourning that grief is resolved. See also bereavement, grief.

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mourning [mor´ning]

1. the normal psychological processes that follow the loss of a loved one; grief is the accompanying emotional state (see grieving). Four phases have been described: a short phase of numbness and denial, followed by a phase of yearning and protest marked by intense pining for the dead, followed by a phase of disorganization marked by pain and despair, ending in a phase of detachment and reorganization of love relationships that completes the work of mourning.

2. social expressions of grief, such as funeral and burial services, prayers, the wearing of black or other specific garments, or other rituals.

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mourning

Grief Psychiatry Reaction to a loss of a loved object–significant or important person, object, role, status, or anything considered part of one's life, which is a process of emotional detachment from that object, freeing the subject to find other interests