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The Psychology Behind Our Grief Over Prince's Death

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's been four days since the shocking death of Prince. The mourning over his loss here at home and all across the country continues.

At only 57, the death of our icon was sudden and shocking. And for so many, sad, if not devastating. So how is it we can so intensely mourn someone we've never even met?

"Well even though we may have not met him, it felt like we knew him and it felt like we knew him quite well because he's from Minneapolis," said psychologist Dr. Cheryl Bemel.

It's safe to say Prince's music, and he himself, brings so many of us back down a road to various times in our lives.

"A key to our unconscious is often language, and so the language that he used to coin his music, it touched such a string within us. We felt he had such a connection to us," Bemel said.

A legend who grew up before our eyes, he was homegrown and self-taught. Bemel says his music not only nourished him, but us as well.

Prince could have lived anywhere -- but he chose to stay here.

"He gave to Minnesota, even once he passed, his family was there giving out these beautiful purple boxes to the fans because that's what he would have wanted them to do, and the fact that he chose to stay here -- it just meant so much to the people of Minneapolis," Bemel said.

And for those who say people are more upset than they should be about a celebrity death, Bemel said, "There's no rules to grief and so people might grieve him more than someone, relationship-wise, closer just because they felt such a connection with him."

Bemel herself said she's feeling that sense of loss. Like so many others, she made the trip to Paisley Park to say goodbye.

"I did bring a little something and I hung it on the fence. I brought a lighted purple dove," Bemel said. "He was just such a special being and I think he will live on so long.

Bemel also said she had the luxury of working side by side with Prince's mother, Mattie, in the Minneapolis public school system.

She said Mattie was a very gracious and down to earth woman who was very grounded, and Bemel believes Prince was so grounded because of his mother.

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