title: Toward a definition of 'childhood mourning'.
abstract: Though a young child cannot mourn like an adult, optimal responses may be distinguished from pathological ones and used to define "childhood mourning." Aspects of mourning such as identification and decathexis must be related to the child's developmental level. Creative use of an "imaginary parent" may help master a parent loss.
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death; D002409:Cathexis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004532:Ego; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006117:Grief; D006801:Humans; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D009769:Object Attachment; D010333:Paternal Deprivation; D010553:Personality Development; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory