Loss
Overview
Loss (Korean: 상실; loss) refers collectively to experiences of losing an object, relationship, role, bodily function, or expectation for the future to which an individual has formed an attachment. It includes not only interpersonal losses such as bereavement or separation but also losses of health, occupation, and identity, and it triggers the psychological processes of grief and mourning. Although loss experiences are universal, their meaning and responses vary greatly depending on an individual's attachment style, cultural context, and social support.
Key Content
Definition and Types
Loss is broadly divided as follows.
- Primary loss: Direct loss arising from the event itself, such as death, divorce, or job loss
- Secondary loss: Role loss, economic loss, and social relationship loss derived from a primary loss
- Ambiguous loss: Loss such as disappearance, dementia, or migration in which closure or confirmation is impossible, delaying mourning because closure cannot be achieved
- Symbolic loss: Loss of invisible objects such as ideals, beliefs, or future plans
Grief Responses and Stages
Traditionally, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's five-stage model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) became widely known, but contemporary research emphasizes that grief is not a linear stage but a cyclical and individual process. John Bowlby's attachment theory explains loss as an emotional response to separation from an attachment figure and proposes "grief work," in which sadness, longing, anger, and guilt intersect. Recently, the continuing bonds perspective has gained prominence, spreading the recognition that maintaining a psychological connection with the deceased is not necessarily pathological.
Psychological and Physical Effects
Grief responses are not limited to the emotional dimension. Physical effects such as sleep disturbance, appetite changes, decreased immune function, and increased cardiovascular risk have been reported, and reduced concentration and weakened decision-making ability are also common. If grief persists for more than 12 months and severely impairs daily functioning, it may be diagnosed as prolonged grief disorder (PGD), which has been included as an official diagnostic category in DSM-5-TR and ICD-11. Differential diagnosis from major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and adjustment disorder is important.
Coping and Recovery
Factors that aid recovery include social support networks, narrative work to reconstruct the meaning of the loss, regular daily rhythms, and, when needed, professional psychotherapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), grief-specific psychotherapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are used as evidence-based interventions. Pharmacotherapy is considered adjunctively when depressive or anxiety symptoms accompany grief. Recovery is understood not as forgetting the loss but as a process of building a new system of meaning in life that includes the loss.
Recent Trends
In 2024–2025, clinical application of the prolonged grief disorder (PGD) diagnosis and use of standardized assessment tools (e.g., PG-13) are expanding. In the digital environment, "grief tech" services reconstructed from AI chatbots or the deceased's data are emerging and giving rise to ethical debate. In addition, after the COVID-19 pandemic, social discussion of collective loss and "disenfranchised grief" has become more active, and the trend is increasing toward introducing grief leave systems in workplaces and loss-response programs in schools and companies. Neuroscience research is identifying changes in reward circuits and identity-related brain networks during grieving, showing that loss is closely connected to the reorganization of self-concept.
Related Topics
- [[Grief]]
- [[Bereavement]]
- [[Post-traumatic stress disorder]]
- [[Depressive disorder]]
- [[Attachment theory]]
- [[Prolonged grief disorder]]