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Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy
2025. Vol. 33, no. 3, 171–194
doi:10.17759/cpp.2025330308
ISSN: 2075-3470 / 2311-9446 (online)

The Cycle of Bereavement (a case study)

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. The article analyzes the experience of the loss of a child. The scientific literature describes a long-term yearning for the deceased, rejection of loss, accompanied by distress, deterioration of functioning in the social sphere, as a prolonged grief. At the same time, little is known about the cyclical dynamics of such an experience and the internal mechanisms of the persistency of such a cycle. The goal was to study the structure and dynamics of the image of a situation of irreversible bereavement using the example of a case study, which is characterized by a mother’s long-term cyclical experience of the loss of her child. Methods: case study, survey, expert assessment, the system dynamics method was used. Results. The image of the bereavement includes an assessment of the situation as not requiring a solution, self-blame, a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness of life, and refusing to accept help. Coping by distancing oneself from the situation and deliberately forgetting determines the dynamics by which the cycle is reproduced and serves as a psychological defense that allows one to block out memories of the child, which lead to a feeling of internal breakdown and hopelessness. Conclusions. The work substantiates the cyclical course of the experience of hopelessness during bereavement and describes the structure of the cycle, its mechanisms at the stage of emotional burnout.

General Information

Keywords: bereavement, prolonged grief, perception of the situation, cyclical dynamics, coping, meaning, positive reappraisal

Journal rubric: Case study

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2025330308

Funding. The study was funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project number 23-28-01255 (https://rscf.ru/project/23-28-01255/).

Acknowledgements. I would like to thank A.N. Poddyakov and N.P. Busygina for valuable comments on earlier versions of this article, N.G. Malysheva and E.O. Golynchik for discussing aspects related to grief and trauma psychotherapy, D.N. Kavtaradze and E.A. Bakhanova for the possibilities of using system analysis, and an anonymous expert for constructive recommendations and support for the study. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the psychologists of the “Dom s Mayakom" hospice and personally to L.G. Pyzhyanova, thanks to whom this study was able to be implemented.

Received 13.01.2024

Revised 12.02.2025

Accepted

Published

For citation: Bityutskaya, Ye.V. (2025). The Cycle of Bereavement (a case study). Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy, 33(3), 171–194. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/cpp.2025330308

© Bityutskaya Ye.V., 2025

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Yekaterina V. Bityutskaya, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Associate Professor, Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6117-1063, e-mail: bityutskaya_ew@mail.ru

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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