In this research centre, we will specifically examine grief experiences, but also the cultural setting and conception of happiness and distress within which grief is situated in our time. The focus on grief will lead the way for a wider analysis of the human condition in our culture, and the research on grief will simultaneously gain from the reflection on the embedding of grief in the cultural setting.

The ambition is to establish an internationally leading research environment regarding research on grief concerning all of the most substantial psychological, cultural and clinical aspects of grief.

The ambition is to grasp the many facets of grief, both in order to achieve a thorough comprehension of the phenomenon, but also in terms of being able to take a qualified position of the diagnosis and treatment of grief in order to improve community services to people in grief.

According to WHO, a new diagnosis is expected to be added to the list of diagnoses in 2018,  “prolonged grief disorder”. The implementation of this new diagnostic grief category will provide a unique opportunity for studying the ongoing changes in the human conception on grief specifically, and suffering and happiness more generally. How can the current cultural conception of grief be comprehended? What does it mean to introduce a new diagnosis? How will the conception of grief evolve during the following years?

The research centre is expected to be globally significant in the following three fields:

• Grief research as such
• Research on the psychological and sociological influence of psychiatric diagnoses specifically regarding the coming grief diagnosis
• cultural analysis committed to analyses of types of human suffering, where experiences of suffering (notably grief) is used to open up for a comprehension of the cultural situation as such.