While hallucinations have long been considered a psychotic symptom, it has also been recognized that hallucinations occur in individuals who are sane, and in situations where they are not pathologized. One of these is grief, or bereavement. These experiences, termed bereavement hallucinations or simply ‘sensory experiences of the deceased’, occur in more than half of adults who lose their partner or spouse, and are often cherished, not feared. They appear to be more common in marriages or relationships rated as highly positive and are not necessarily associated with pathological grief. In this webinar, the prevalence and correlates of bereavement hallucinations are reviewed, and a range of models developed to understand them presented. Such models include attachment-related, trauma and dissociation-based, and continuing bonds theory. Interpreting the experiences as the deceased actually communicating with the living partner is also socially validated in many cultures. Finally, the experience of bereavement hallucinations raises questions as to the extent to which the human mind itself is relationally-structured, or dialogical in nature.
Unlimited Access for 60 days!!!
Regular price: $129
Video: Gone but not gone: Models of grief, bereavement hallucinations and the nature of mind
PPT Slides: Gone but not gone.
Assessment Component
Andrew Moskowitz, Ph.D. is director of the Forensic Psychology graduate program at George Washington University in Alexandria, Virginia, former president of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation and a core member of the WHO ICD-11 dissociative disorders diagnoses task force. He is a renowned expert in the trauma/dissociation field, who, for the past 20 years, has used this perspective to inform our understandings of psychosis and violent behavior. As a clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. Moskowitz has performed therapy and conducted forensic evaluations in the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, in both prison and forensic mental health settings. As an academic, he has taught undergraduate and graduate psychology and medical students in the United States, New Zealand, Scotland, Denmark and Germany, and was the lead editor of both editions of the influential book Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation (Wiley, 2008, 2019).
