Unresolved grief and mourning in Navajo women.

Grief and mourning are normal psychological processes in response to loss. They are the means whereby individuals psychologically let go and free themselves from the bonds of attachment to others. Although characteristic stages and phases of this process can be discerned, there is considerable cultural patterning and shaping of this experience. Case examples are given of Navajo women who experience spontaneous dreams and hallucinations of lost loved ones as an expression of their unresolved grief and mourning.