The Role of the other in Mourning

Growing From Grief

Currently, there are 2.5 million children in the United States who suffered the loss of a parent. Grieving children are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with their nongrieving peers. Adults ( N = 19) who experienced a loss during childhood were interviewed to assess what was most helpful and most harmful in coping through the years following the death. The qualitative descriptions were coded and analysis of common themes determined. Five theoretical constructs were found: adjustment to catastrophe, support, therapy, continuing a connection with the deceased parent, and reinvestment. The findings have clinical applications for bereaved children, their families, and clinical programs targeting this population. The unique insights provide an emotionally salient expression of their experiences and provide a framework for how best to support this group.

The missing tombstone: reflections on mourning and creativity

There are differences as well as similarities between mourning occurring after the loss of a single individual under ordinary civilized conditions, and mourning after multiple losses under traumatic conditions. A brief review of the psychoanalytic theory of mourning articulated by Freud in 1917 and modified in the 1960s is followed by an equally brief review of the relationship between artistic creativity and mourning. Because survivors of major disasters who suffer multiple losses need time to recover before they can engage the emotionally demanding task of mourning, the mourning process in these cases is frequently delayed. "Memorial spaces" appear to facilitate delayed mourning because such spaces are responsive to a deeply felt need by survivors of major tragedies to articulate what they experience as unspeakable and unshareable. The memories and the pain associated with them are then welcome because mourning is not about forgetting; mourning is about remembering, a process that may take a lifetime.

Rethinking pathological mourning: multiple types and therapeutic approaches

Different types of pathological mourning are discussed, with the idea that refining psychoanalytic nosology in this sector can contribute to the enhancement of interventions more suitable for each. Primary fixation to the object--extant before the loss--is differentiated from secondary fixation, which occurs when suffering in the present leads to idealization of an object that is only then felt to be actually lost. The role of narcissism, guilt feelings, and paranoid anxieties in the process of pathological mourning is considered. Clinical material illustrates some of these conditions.

Letting go: some thoughts about termination

Termination of analysis is discussed from three perspectives. First, considered as a vicissitude of the analytic relationship, termination contains essential elements of the psychoanalytic process itself. Cycles of attachment, loss, mourning, and internalization mark moments in, as well as overviews of, every analysis from its beginning to well past its termination. Second, Freud's approach to the subject of termination is explored and widened, with an emphasis on its relation to mourning and on the depth and permanence of analytic transference--two dimensions relatively neglected by Freud, perhaps for personal reasons. Finally, clinical issues are presented that are meaningful to the author in his work with analysands, including his work as a training analyst.