Childhood Parent-loss in a Psychiatrically Normal Population.

There is a good deal of theoretical speculation in the psychiatric literature regarding the aetiological significance of childhood parent-loss in mental illness. Some of the speculation is undoubtedly based on a lack of appreciation of the extent to which childhood parental bereavement occurs in the general population. This article reports on a study which investigates childhood parent-loss in a group of individuals who have no history of serious psychiatric disorder, and the results suggest that parental bereavement in childhood may normally be a much commoner event than is generally supposed. There is another aim underlying the article. The data to be discussed were obtained from 210 outpatients attending medical and surgical clinics in a general hospital and it will be demonstrated that these out-patients appear to be a suitable source of normal data on parental bereavement.