The Bereaved Child

How a child mourns is often misunderstood, and the long term effects of childhood grief may be underestimated. The author offers a reflection illustrated by clinical examples of the particularities of the work of mourning in children, comparing the practice of childhood grief to that of traumatism. It is a matter of evaluating the impact of an event from outer reality (the death of a loved one) on the child’s inner world ; to observe and encourage the changes it may elicit, and to detect the lines of weakness, or scars, that will remain on the psyche.