PRIM? Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia"

Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia"

Contemporary Freud Series

Edited by Leticia Glocer Fiorini, Thierry Bokanowski, and Sergio Lewkowicz.
Foreword by Ethel Spector Person.
Part of the "Turning Points & Critical Issues" series.
Published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

IPA Publications Committee

The Publications Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) decided to continue the Contemporary Freud series after it had been discontinued since 2001.
The series was founded by Robert Wallerstein and initially edited by Joseph Sandier, Ethel Spector Person, and Peter Fonagy.
The series aims to approach Freud's work from a contemporary perspective, highlighting his fundamental contributions and showcasing present psychoanalysts' ideas about his work.
The series considers two main lines of development: a contemporary reading of Freud that reclaims his contributions and a clarification of the logical and epistemic perspectives from which he is read today.
The project involves gathering psychoanalysts from different geographical regions and theoretical stances to show their polyphony.
The reader is expected to distinguish and discriminate between different viewpoints, establishing relations or contradictions.
The choice of "Mourning and Melancholia" to reinitiate the series is based on the following reasons:
- Mourning processes and their differences from melancholia are part of everyone's life and vital stages.
- The 20th and 21st centuries are marked by traumatic social and political events that affect large groups and lead to the rupture of social ties.
- The work is considered the root of object relations theories and the starting point of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis.
Two themes run throughout the volume: the relations between psychic and social reality, and relations with others in individual and collective mourning.
The volume brings together authors rooted in the Freudian tradition and others who have developed theories not explicitly considered in Freud's work.
The purpose is to go beyond a unique, uniform line of thought to sustain differences that each reader might process creatively.
Claudio Laks Eizirik, President of the International Psychoanalytical Association, supported the reinitiation of the series.

Editors and Contributors

Carlos Mario Asian:
- Member and Training Analyst, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association (APA).
- Former Editor, Revista de Psicoanálisis (APA).
- President of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, 1979-81; Vice-President of the International Psychoanalytical Association, 1983-85 and 1985-1987.
- Published papers and chapters in books on the mourning process, pluralism, psychic structure, psychosomatics, etc.
Martin S. Bergmann:
- Clinical professor of psychology, New York University Post-Doctorate Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
- Honorary Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association and is Training and Supervising Analyst of the New York Freud Society.
- Received the Sigourney Award and the Award of Psychoanalytic Education.
- Books include: Understanding Dissidence and Controversy in the History of Psychoanalysis; The Hartmann Era; In the Shadow of Moloch; The Anatomy of Loving; Generations of the Holocaust; and The Evolution of Psychoanalytic Technique.
Thierry Bokanowski:
- Training and supervising analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society (SPP) and a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association.
- Former secretary of the executive committee of the Paris Psychoanalytical Institute; and former editor of the Revue Française de Psychanalyse.
- Current President of the Scientific Committee of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society.
- Published several papers in various psychoanalytic journals, including the International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
- Books include Sándor Ferenczi, and De la pratique analytique, translated under the title The Practice of Psychoanalysis.
Roosevelt M. S. Cassorla:
- Lives in Campinas, Brazil.
- Full Professor at the Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine Department, Medical Sciences Faculty, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and as Professor of the Postgraduation Course of Mental Health as a visitor.
- Titular Member, Training Analyst and Professor of the Institute of The Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of Sao Paulo (SBPSP).
- Edited three books on suicide and death and is author of 42 chapters on psychoanalysis and medical psychology subjects.
- Most recent papers refer to analytic technique and borderline configurations.
Leticia Glocer Fiorini:
- Training psychoanalyst of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association.
- Current chair of the Publications Committee of the International Psychoanalytical Association and of the Publications Committee of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association.
- Former member of the Editorial Board of the Revista de Psicoanálisis (1998-2002, Buenos Aires).
- Won the Celes Cárcamo Prize (APA, 1993) for her paper: "The feminine position: A heterogeneous construction".
- Author of The Feminine and the Complex Thought and editor of The Other in the Intersubjective Field and Time, History and Structure. A Psychoanalytical Approach.
- Published in collected papers: "Assisted Fertilization, New Problems" in Prevention in Mental Health', "The Sexed Body and the Real: Its Meaning in Transsexualism" in Masculine Scenarios] "Psychoanalysis and Gender, Convergences and Divergences" in Psychoanalysis and Gender Relations', and "The Bodies of Present-Day Maternity" in Motherhood in the Twenty-first Century.
Florence Guignard:
- Born in Geneva; started her analytic training at the Swiss Society, moved to Paris in 1970, was elected Full Member of the Paris Society in 1979 and as Training Analyst in 1982.
- As a Member of the COCAP of IPA, she created two Associations for Child Psychoanalysis, one French (APE, 1983), one European (SEPEA, 1993).
- Head of the Editorial Board of L'Année Psychanalytique Internationale (a publication in French of the IJP).
- Published many papers and two books: Au vif de l'infantile, and Epitre à l'objet, both translated into Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Sergio Lewkowicz:
- Scientific Director of the Porto Alegre Psychoanalytical Society; Psychiatrist and Training and Supervising Analyst for the Porto Alegre Psychoanalytical Society.
- Professor and Supervisor for Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy in the Psychiatry Department, Medical School of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
- Member of the IPA Publications Committee; Member of the Programme Committee of the 43rd Congress of the IPA in New Orleans (2004).
- Former President of the Society of Psychiatry of Rio Grande do Sul; former Editor of the Psychiatry Journal of Rio Grande do Sul.
- Published papers on psychoanalytic technique and is the co-editor of Truth, Reality and the Psychoanalyst and editor of Psychoanalysis and Sexuality: Tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Three Essays on Sexual Theory.
Maria Cristina Melgar:
- Medical doctor, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst; she is a full member with training function at the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association, where she was Chair of the Department of Psychosis and of the Culture Board, member of the Directive Board and advisor for the Scientific Department.
- Head of area at the J. T. Borda Psychiatric Hospital and professor at UBA and Del Salvador universities, as well as Director of EOS, Journal of Art and Psychoanalysis.
- Author of several books, among them Images of Madness] Love Enamouredness Passion, and Art and Madness, Art and Psychoanalysis: From the Psychoanalytic Method to the Meeting with the Enigmatic in Visual Arts, and of many published papers.
- Participated in the inaugural plenary of IPA first Interdisciplinary Symposium and has submitted at other IPA congresses her developments on the metapsychology of non-clinical psychoanalytic experiences.
- Interested in the creative side of trauma, of passionate madness, and of experiences of loss that lead to the construction of the new.
Thomas H. Ogden:
- Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Psychoses, a Supervising and Personal Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, and a member of the Faculty of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.
- Author of This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries; Conversations at the Frontier of Dreaming, Reverie and Interpretation: Sensing Something Human] Subjects of Analysis] and The Primitive Edge of Experience.
- Awarded the 2004 International Journal of Psychoanalysis Prize for the most important paper of the year.
Maria Lucila Pelento:
- Professor of Philosophy, a medical doctor and a Psychoanalyst; she is a member of the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association.
- Co-founder of Referenda Buenos Aires, specializing in the theory and practice with children and adolescents.
- Granted the Hayman Award 2004 and a Konex Award 2006 (Humanities).
- Conducted research on various effects of State-terrorism in Argentina—e.g., mourning for missing people; consequences of kidnapping and restitution of children on their sense of identity and belonging; creation of new social myths; disruptions of social links and marks on the body and on other surfaces; investigation of people affected by AMIA bombing; coordination of practices carried out with young people deprived of freedom and currently with victims of social exclusion.
Ethel Spector Person:
- Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytical Training and Research, where she was the Director from 1981 until 1991.
- Books include Feeling Strong: The Achievement of Authentic Power, The Sexual Century: Selected Papers on Sex and Gender, By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives', and Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Love.
- Co-edited Women: Sex and Sexuality, which was given an Award for Excellence in the field of education by Chicago Women Publishing.
- Co-edited Psychoanalysis: The Second Century, and edited the APPI Textbook of Psychoanalysis.
- Active in the American Psychoanalytic Association, where she served both as a Fellow to the Board on Professional Standards and as an elected Councilor to the Executive Council. She was a Vice-President of the International Psychoanalytical Association from 1995 to 1999.
- Recipient of the Sigmund Freud Award from the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians; the Section III Recognition Award for her work in women's psychology from Division 39 of The American Psychological Association; and the Award for Distinguished and Meritorious Service to the IPA, 2000.
- Named the National Woman Psychoanalytic Scholar by the American Psychoanalytic Association in 2003.
Jean-Michel Quinodoz:
- Psychoanalyst in private practice in Geneva.
- Training Analyst of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society and Honorary Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
- Editor for Europe of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (1994-2003), and he is currently Editor-in-chief of the New Annuals published in French, Italian, German and Russian by The International Journal of Psychoanalysis.
- Written more than 80 psychoanalytic articles published in various languages and is the author of The Taming of Solitude: Separation Anxiety in Psychoanalysis] Dreams That Turn Over a Page-, and Reading Freud: Chronological Exploration of Freud's Writings.
Priscilla Roth:
- Training Analyst and Supervisor of the British Psychoanalytical Society, where she is currently the Chair of the Education Committee.
- Principal Child Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Institute, London, and a lecturer in psychoanalytic theory at University College, London.
- Taught extensively in Britain and abroad and is the author of a number of psychoanalytic papers and the editor of On Bearing Unbearable States of Mind: The Collected Papers of Ruth Malcolm, and, with Richard Rusbridger, Encounters with Melanie Klein: The Collected Papers of Elizabeth Spillius.
Vamik D. Volkan:
- Doctor of Medical Science honoris causa, University of Kuopio, Finland; Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; Senior Erik Erikson Scholar, Erikson Institute for Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, MA; and Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, Washington, DC.

Preface

The book restarts the continuity of the Contemporary Freud Series and updates Sigmund Freud's seminal work, "Mourning and Melancholia" (1917e [1915]).
"Mourning and Melancholia" is a landmark in understanding the normal and psychopathological aspects of mourning and depressive processes.
The work bridges the first and second topographic theories of the psychic apparatus.
The ego's critical instance is enlightened, identification as a result of object loss acquires relevance, and distinctions and relations between the real and the imaginary are worked through.
Themes were identified and developed in nine chapters, with authors selected for their expertise on the topics.
The different points of view invite enriching debate, putting ideas into motion.
The Freudian text is inspiring and provocative, leading to new insights.
The aim is to go beyond a final synthesis, focusing on further developments and views concerning the subject, and to recover the richness of Freudian proposals.

Foreword by Ethel Spector Person

The IPA "Contemporary Freud: Turning Points and Critical Issues" series is being revived.
The original series was born at the suggestion of Robert Wallerstein, who appointed an IPA Committee on Publications under the Chairmanship of Joseph Sandier.
Wallerstein perceived that the analytic world was disjointed to some degree, due to differences in language and theory making, and thought of the series as a means to circulate new insights and ideas.
The proposal grew out of the desire to provide the IPA membership with a new modality for an intellectual exchange among the European, Latin American, and North American psychoanalysts.
Joseph Sandler's organizational skills brought Wallerstein's idea to fruition.
The key idea was to provide a medium by which different ideas and emphases within three different regions—and even within one region—could be disseminated among the larger psychoanalytic world.
The series highlighted different perspectives so as to allow a clearer and greater understanding of the important ideas, as well as the congruencies and divergences, in different analytic perspectives.
The project brought together different groups and disseminated key insights and discoveries among the different regions.
The rebirth of the series will prove to be an extremely creative one.
The volume starts with an introduction by Martin Bergmann and resumes with "Mourning and Melancholia".
Both melancholia and mourning are triggered by loss.
The distinction often made is that mourning occurs after the death of a loved one, while in melancholia the object of love does not qualify as irretrievably lost. Melancholia is about a loss that is sometimes retrievable.

Introduction by Martin S. Bergmann

Freud's paper "Mourning and Melancholia" (1917e [1915]) is considered one of his most illustrious.
These monographs, while very interesting, do not read easily.
A significant paper by Freud is assigned to a wide variety of analysts, and each of them is asked to comment.
The difficulty may be due to the fact that the curse of the biblical Tower of Babel may already have fallen on us: our language has become so confounded that we can no longer communicate easily.
The monographs attempt a complex task:
- to explain and explicate the implication of what Freud wanted to say
- to make clear what happened to Freud's ideas in subsequent development
- present disagreements and modification of Freud's ideas.
They are excellent for seminar discussion with a leader, particularly if students are encouraged to bring their own clinical material that can be understood in a new way when Freud's paper is discussed.
As in the other monographs, so here, too, Freud's paper forms the centre out of which the contributors radiate in different directions.
The current monograph contains ten essays written by contributors from seven countries.
The prerequisite for enjoying reading it is a positive attitude towards the current diversity of views within the IPA.
Freud tended to equate at least certain types of disagreement with resistance to the painful discoveries he made and a retreat from the difficult truth that it was his lot to discover (Bergmann, 2004).
Bergmann divides psychoanalysts who write into three groups: heretics (Adler, Jung, Rank), modifiers (Klein, Hartmann, Kohut, Winnicott), and extenders (Nunberg, Fenichel, Walder).
The heretic leaves or is expelled, the modifier asks for or implies that something crucial in Freud's work remained incomplete and something new has to be added, while the extender extends Freud's findings beyond what Freud explored.
There are two ways of looking at "Mourning and Melancholia": primarily as a further extension of Freud's paper "On Narcissism: An Introduction" (1914c) or as the paper in which Freud transformed psychoanalysis into an object relations theory.
Most contributors to this monograph are writing under the influence of Melanie Klein, and they tend to look upon "Mourning and Melancholia" as Freud's changing position from the so-called drive theory to an object relations theory.
Ogden looks at the way Freud made use of this seemingly focal exploration of these two psychological states [mourning and melancholia] as a vehicle for introducing—as much implicitly as explicitly—the foundation of his theory of internal object relations.
Quinodoz supports Ogden's point of view when he writes that Klein and her followers' views are "rooted" in Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia".
It is of historical interest that in her 1940 paper "Mourning and Its Relation to Manic Depressive States" Melanie Klein did not attribute her object relationship point of view to Freud's paper.