A man coming from mountain whose wife died 6 months prior says that his wife appeared to him and asked him to join her. The diagnosis is:
The answer here is debatable. First of all, lets review some facts. There is no clear cut duration in which grief should get resolved. The most accepted duration for grief is 6-12 months. In this case the history is that the man repoed that wife asked him to join her. The question has not mentioned if it was an auditory perception (i.e. he heard voice of wife) or visual perception (i.e. he saw his wife), what was the state of consciousness (whether he was awake or sleeping). In view of above its difficult to even call this phenomenon as a hallucination. Even if we accept it as a hallucination, it appears to be a single episode. There is no history of any other associated symptoms. Hence, the better answer here would be normal grief Also, please remember that grief and bereavement are often used interchangeably, however strictly speaking, bereavement is a state of loss, whereas grief is the emotional and behavioral response to loss. The question is talking about the behavioral and emotional response here.
Normal grief
Grief psychosis
Bereavement reaction
Supernatural phenomenon
Neurotic, Stress Related and Somatoform Disorders