Mummification in a Chinese patient with grief: a morbid symptom or a cultural practice?

Mummification was first described by Gorer in 1965 as a feature of grief in which the deceased individual's belongings and, in extreme cases, his or her corpse are preserved as if he or she was still alive and, often, the grieving person acts as if the deceased will return at a later date. Little research has been done on the cultural differences of patients demonstrating mummification. In the Asian community, a common belief is that there is life after death. The spirits of the dead are believed to exist in the human world, and ancestral worship is a common practice among Chinese people. Gorer believed that mummification was a maladaptation of unresolved grief in a ritual-less society. While this may possibly be true in western societies, this theory does not necessarily comply with Chinese practices. This case study discusses the psychopathology of mummification in a grieving Chinese patient and explores the importance of considering cultural influences in assessing the morbidity of this symptom.