Grief really is weird - and perhaps even weirder for humans than for other species. Human tool use has primes us to see things that we can control not simply a

Grief really is weird - and perhaps even weirder for humans than for other species. Human tool use has primes us to see things that we can control not simply as things we control, but as extensions of ourselves. Human co and counter operative behaviour has forced us to adapt reflective cognitive structures in which our minds attempt to simulate the minds of others - most accurately for those we best understand, which includes the people that we are closest to. We use this simulation as an interface by which we can generate expectations for how people we understand will respond to different situations - and we can treat those that we trust as complex extensions of ourselves (unexpected behaviour and especially betrayal in this context invalidates our internal simulation not only of the world, but of ourselves). And the death of a person known and trusted leaves us still with the cognitive structures forged to deal with them, an orphaned piece of the mind which can never again serve its prime function. Ironically our inability to cope with the loss leads us to neglect the final cognizant vestiges of the dead.