Case material for patients treated with either psychoanalysis or brief therapy was studied to examine the basis for the various states of pathological grief after bereavement. They view these states as intensifications or unusual prolongations of states found in normal grief and describe them in terms of the reemergence of self-images and role relationship models that were held in check by the existence of the deceased person. This conclusion concerning preexisting mental schemata leads to an elaboration and partial revision of theories of regression, ambivalence and introjection as causes of pathological grief.