Enduring Loss

'Enduring Loss: Mourning, Depression, and Narcissism Through the Life Cycle revisits two of Freud's key papers, "On Narcissism" and "Mourning and Melancholia", and asks a number of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists of varying orientation to consider them in relation to the life cycle, from childhood to old age, and culturally. Immediately such issues arise as - how does the individual deal with loss at different periods of life? What is mourned in later life? How do we understand narcissism in adolescence and early childhood? Is narcissism both normal and pathological? Some of these papers are deeply embedded in clinical work, other papers look at the concept "outdoors", i.e., more sociologically. This book opens up new and interesting ways of considering Freud's two papers, demonstrating in a fascinating series of papers their immediate relevance today.'- Betty Joseph, Distinguished Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society'This book approaches Freud's paper "Mourning and Melancholia" from our contemporary perspective which, in itself, makes it of very substantial importance. However, more than this, it examines the processes of mourning through the life cycle: childhood, adolescence and old age. This perspective allows us to examine the constant interaction between internal and external, the focus of psychoanalytic understanding, in a particularly explicit way.The editors are to be very highly congratulated for bringing this unique perspective, the life cycle, to illuminate and deepen our understanding of the many sidedness of mourning and the consequences of failure to mourn. The book gathers together papers from major thinkers in British psychoanalysis and marks a very substantial contribution to psychoanalytic scholarship. It will also prove, because of the clarity and high quality of the writing, accessible to the interested layman.'- David Bell, President Elect of the British Psychoanalytical SocietyContributors:Anne Alvarez, Maria Rhode, Caroline Polmear, Margot Waddell, Denis Flynn and Helga Skogstad, Eileen McGinley, Stefano Bolognini, Sally Weintrobe, Arturo Varchevker, Ken Robinson, Margaret and Michael Rustin