Broken heart
For most bereaved individuals, the journey through grief will ultimately culminate in an acceptable level of adjustment to a life without their loved one. The Kübler-Ross model postulates that there are five stages of grief after the loss of a loved-one: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And while it is recognized that mourners go through initial period of numbness leading to depression and finally to reorganization and recovery, most modern grief specialists recognize the variations and fluidity of grief experiences differ considerably in intensity and length among cultural groups, individually from person to person as well as depending on the amount of investment put into the relationship.
Intuitive–instrumental grief
Intuitive and instrumental grieving are two extreme styles of grieving located on a continuum. Because of this, it is rare to find people who belong purely to one style of a grieving pattern. The middle area between extreme intuitive grieving and extreme instrumental grieving is called blended grieving. People who exhibit qualities of both the intuitive grieving style as well as the instrumental grieving style are identified as blended grievers. Through blended grieving, a person naturally expresses grief in both cognitive (instrumental) and affective (intuitive) ways, however one style of grief is usually more dominant than the other.