To have and have not: adaptive bereavement by transforming mental ties to the deceased

Over the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in the field of bereavement: From the traditional view that insists on the necessity of disengagement, toward a position that postulates the need for a continuing connection. The authors propose to move beyond the dichotomy that was created by the two paradigms and conceive of it as a process of transformation that involves both disengagement and connection. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of control and adaptation, the authors suggest that the relationship with the deceased may be transformed to mental representations of this person that carry substitute value.