absence of grieving phenomena following bereavement represents some form of personality pathology” (p. 18). More recently, in a survey of self-identified bereavement experts, the majority (65%) endorsed beliefs that absent grief exists, that it usually stems from denial or inhibition, and that it is generally maladaptive in the long run (Middleton, Moylan, Raphael, Burnett, & Martinek, 1993). These same bereavement experts (76%) also endorsed the compatible assumption that absent grief eventually surfaces in the form of delayed grief reactions. The available empirical literature, however, suggests a very different story: Resilience to the unsettling effects of interpersonal loss is not rare but relatively common, does not appear to indicate pathology but rather healthy adjustment, and does not lead to delayed grief reactions. Over a decade ago, Wortman and Silver (1989) first drew attention to the somewhat startling fact that there was no empirical basis for either the assumption that the absence of distress during bereavement is pathological or that it is always followed by delayed manifestations of grief. Unfortunately, at the time their article was published, there were relatively few longitudinal bereavement studies from which to fully evaluate their claim. More recent prospective studies have now begun to shed greater light on individual differences in grief reactions (for a review, see Bonanno & Kaltman, 2001). Although the DSM has not specified a unique category for acute or complicated grief reactions, the available research generally shows that chronic depression and distress tend to occur in 10% to 15% of bereaved individuals. Considerable numbers of bereaved individuals also tend to show more time-limited disruptions in functioning (e.g., cognitive disorganization, dysphoria, health deficits, disrupted social and occupational functioning) lasting at least several months to one or two years. Most important, in studies that report aggregate data, bereaved individuals who exhibited relatively low levels of depression or distress have consistently approached or exceeded 50% of the sample. For example, in a recent study that examined various levels of depression among conjugally bereaved adults, approximately half of a sample did not show even mild depression (these individuals endorsed fewer than two items from the DSM–IV symptom list) following the loss (Zisook, Paulus, Shuchter, & Judd, 1997). In addition, there is now solid prospective evidence that associates resilience to loss with the experience and expression of positive emotion (e.g., Bonanno & Keltner, 1997). How many of the bereaved individuals who do not exhibit overt grief reactions will eventually develop delayed grief reactions? The evidence is unequivocal on this point: No empirical study has ever clearly demonstrated the existence of delayed grief. For example, Middleton, Burnett, Raphael, and Martinek (1996) used cluster analyses to examine longitudinal outcome patterns among groups of bereaved spouses, adult children, and parents. Despite their conviction that delayed grief would emerge, Middleton et al. concluded that “no evidence was found for the pattern of response which might be expected for delayed grief” (Middleton et al., 1996, p. 169). Data from a recent fiveyear longitudinal study indicated a similar conclusion (Bonanno & Field, 2001). This study contrasted the common assumption that delayed grief is a robust phenomenon with an alternative assumption that a few participants might show delayed elevations but only on isolated measures because of random measurement error. The results were consistent with the measurement-error explanation. In fact, when a psychometrically more reliable, weighted composite measure was used, not a single participant evidenced delayed grief. The idea that the absence of grief is pathological is rooted in the assumptions that bereaved individuals showing this pattern must have had a superficial attachment to the deceased or that they are cold and emotionally distant people (Bowlby, 1980). Such explanations are notoriously difficult to rule out because, for obvious reasons, most bereavement studies take place after the death already has occurred. When measured during bereavement, factors such as the quality of the lost relationship or the situational context of the loss are confounded with current functioning and the possible influence of memory biases (e.g., Safer, Bonanno, & Field, 2001). However, a recent prospective study provided a rare opportunity to address this issue using data gathered on average three years prior to the death of a spouse (Bonanno, Wortman, et al., 2002). This study provided strong evidence in support of the idea that many bereaved individuals will exhibit little or no grief and that these individuals are not cold and unfeeling or lacking in attachment but, rather, are capable of genuine resilience in the face of loss. Almost half of the participants in this study (46% of the sample) had low levels of depression, both prior to the loss and through 18 months of bereavement, and had relatively few grief symptoms (e.g., intense yearning for the spouse) during bereavement. An examination of the prebereavement functioning of this group revealed no signs of maladjustment; these participants were not rated as emotionally cold or distant by the interviewers, did not report