Concept
Mourning
The psychical response to the loss of a loved person or of an abstraction that has taken their place. In Trauer und Melancholie (1917) Freud described the work of mourning: reality-testing shows that the object no longer exists, and the libido attached to it is withdrawn bit by bit, through painful recollection of each memory and hope, until the ego is free to love again. Melancholia, by contrast, turns the loss against the ego itself. Melanie Klein later linked every mourning to the infant's depressive position.
Read more- Introduced by
- Sigmund Freud
- Key works
- 2
introduced by
- Sigmund Freud 1917 Freud had already said in Totem und Tabu that mourning has a psychical task to perform; Trauer und Melancholie makes it a concept, the work of mourning (Trauerarbeit), in which reality-testing shows that the loved object is gone and the libido is withdrawn from its memories bit by bit, and sets it against melancholia.