  The master equation for a damped spin well known from the theory of
superradiance, is written as a finite-difference equation and solved by a
WKB-like method. The propagator thus obtained looks like the van Vleck
propagator of a certain classical Hamiltonian system with one degree of
freedom. A new interpretation is provided of the temporal broadening of
initially sharp probability distributions as the analogue of the spreading of
the quantum mechanical wave packet.
