Ah School House Rock! Yay.
You make a great analogy about feedback and grief, but for some reason I've never had that problem. Sure occasionally feedback doesn't fit but with my critique group I have generally applied the majority of suggestions right away. Maybe it's because I spent a long time wallowing in my ego before finally joining a group and realizing my writing needed work. Once I accepted that I was ready and even yearning for help to make it better. Now I love constructive criticism.
Crazy about constructive criticism? Probably not.
I also love the constructive criticism I receive. Most of the time the issue is clear and the possibilities for improvement obvious. In terms of the grief cycle, I arrive at the acceptance stage (often skipping intermediate steps) in a matter of minutes.
In the case that prompted this post, there was a request for more of something I thought I'd already done. For the first two days I couldn't see how to do more without making the manuscript significantly longer (and running the risk of making it tedious). I understood what my friend was driving at and agreed that it would be a good thing, but didn't see how to proceed. I was stuck in the stage before acceptance. Then, on the miraculous third day, I finally understood how to make the improvement with only a modest increase in the overall word count.