I heard a term to describe the grieving process that doesn’t go properly because the loss itself isn’t resolved. For example, if you “sort of lose” a loved one because they disappeared but you don’t know if they died or are coming back, then you don’t really fully grieve. Or if you gradually lose someone because of slowly advancing illness that gradually takes them away from you in effect, even though they may still be alive, perhaps only a shadow or shell of the person you loved.
It was something like “complicated grief”, “unresolved grief”, or “incomplete grief”, but those aren’t right, they all mean something else (their emphasis is on how the grieving progresses, not on the complicated or unresolved or incomplete nature of the loss itself).
Thanks, anybody who knows what I’m looking for!