The approach of the DSM-5 and ICD-11 to the issue of bereavement-related depression is going to attract a considerable attention from the mental health community and the general public. This issue, in fact, is closely linked to the more general question of what is a mental disorder, or what is the boundary between mental pathology and homeostatic reactions to major life events. It is not by chance that the DSM-IV, in its introduction (p. xxi), identifies as one of the components of the definition of mental disorder the fact that “the syndrome or pattern must not be merely an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event, for example, the death of a loved one”.