Camille B. Wortman (born July 2, 1947)[1] is a clinical health psychologist and expert on grief and coping in response to traumatic events and loss.
[1] With Brehm, she engaged in research on psychological reactance and learned helplessness, exploring how people cope with situations or outcomes over which they have no control.
[1] At Northwestern, she conducted research on coping in response to severe accidents that resulted in spinal cord injury and paralysis, collaborating with her colleagues, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman,[10] Philip Brickman,[11] and others, on studies of how people make attributions of blame.
[14] Wortman's research career has focused on how humans deal with adverse life events and their experiences of grief and bereavement when losing a loved one.
[18] In one line of her research, Wortman focused on cancer patients, their physicians, and caregivers, and how interpersonal relationships and social supports helped people cope with terminal illness.
[19][20] Counter to the Wortman–Brehm model and its emphasis on hopelessness,[8] Wortman found that people often can find meaning in tragic events and recover from trauma and grief.