Grief is understood by many researchers to be an emotional syndrome that includes a cluster of emotional components rather than one specific emotion. Guilt, a familiar emotion within the grief syndrome, has been long-recognized by writers and widely reported by bereaved persons themselves. Guilt was included as one of the main grief reactions as early as the 1940s. It has been considered an important aspect of grief both as a normal reaction and as a manifestation of pathological grief, even being considered a reason for the development of complications in grieving. The association between guilt and psychological and somatic problems among bereaved persons has been identified in clinical case reports. The centrality of this emotion is also reflected in its incorporation as a subscale in classic grief measures, such as the Grief Experience Inventory and the Grief Experience Questionnaire. Thus, there are good reasons to argue the need for sound empirical investigation of guilt in bereavement. Despite the lack of systematic understanding of guilt in the context, some empirical evidence has accumulated.