Jump to content

Mourning and Melancholia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mourning and Melancholia
AuthorSigmund Freud
Original titleTrauer und Melancholie
LanguageGerman
SubjectsMourning
Melancholia
Publication date
1917
Publication placeGermany

Mourning and Melancholia (German: Trauer und Melancholie) is a 1917 work of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.[1]

In this essay, Freud argues that mourning and melancholia are similar but different responses to loss. In mourning, a person deals with the grief of losing of a specific love object, and this process takes place in the conscious mind. In melancholia, a person grieves for a loss they are unable to fully comprehend or identify, and thus this process takes place in the unconscious mind. Mourning is considered a healthy and natural process of grieving a loss, while melancholia is considered pathological.

It has been argued by some writers that Freud's description of mourning in this work is not compatible with current models of mourning.[2][3]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Freud, Sigmund (1914–1916). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV, On The History of Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works (PDF). London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Retrieved November 26, 2023. The book link is to Sigmund Freud's essay "Mourning and Melacholia" which has been extracted from the book.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Freud, Sigmund (1917). "Trauer und Melancholie". Internationale Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Psychoanalyse [International Journal for Medical Psychoanalysis]. 4 (6): 288–301. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  2. ^ Clewell, T (2004). "Mourning beyond melancholia: Freud's psychoanalysis of loss". Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 52 (1): 43–67. doi:10.1177/00030651040520010601. PMID 15089015. S2CID 3015896.
  3. ^ Hagman, George, ed. (31 March 2016). New Models of Bereavement Theory and Treatment New Mourning. Taylor & Francis. p. preface. ISBN 9781317610519. Archived from the original (Ebook) on May 28, 2021. Retrieved May 28, 2021 – via Google books. Honoring the centennial of Sigmund Freud's seminal paper Mourning and Melancholia, New Models of Bereavement Theory and Treatment: New Mourning is a major contribution to our culture's changing view of bereavement and mourning, identifying flaws in old models and offering a new, valid and effective approach...