A loss is a universal, common phenomenon which could not possibly be excluded. In psychological consultancy and psychotherapy, every day the people who are deprived of something or experience separation, are met. A special situation is a close person’s death, because it wholly affects the human being’s functioning (somatic, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual spheres). Bereavement is a very complex process characterized by a large variety of feelings, their intensity and dynamics. Among many definitions of bereavement, predominant for many years now have been psychodynamic theories, attachment theories and models of bereavement phases and tasks. A universal model of working out the loss is determined, often divided into specific stages, where one has to lament, consciously confront the lack of the close person, break up the bonds with the lost person, and find the meaning of the loss incurred. The article presents a contemporary discussion on the determination of new criteria of recognizing a pathological bereavement. Presently, owing to the more and more methodologically complex research, the possibility to verify the traditional bereavement models is increasing. This study involved an analysis of existing methods of specifying the bereavement experiencing standards. Furthermore, the significance was emphasized of the selected individual factors (preferred styles of coping with the loss), sociocultural (social depriving the bereavement of the rights to undergo it) and situational (vague loss), which in a special way affect experiencing a close person’s death. The contemporary knowledge on the complexity of bereavement in various social groups and different contexts of incurred loss predisposes to an appropriate modification of traditional assumptions relating to bereavement.

bereavement, pathological bereavement, models of bereavement, bereavement deprived of rights