And Melancholia" — On Freud's "mourning

Melancholia (closely related to what we now call clinical depression) is characterized by a "morbid" reaction to loss.

Overview

"Mourning and Melancholia" is a foundational text in psychoanalysis because it shifted the focus from external behavior to internal ego structures. It suggests that depression is often "interrupted grief"—an inability to let go that results in the self-destruction of the ego. On Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia"

Unlike the mourner, the melancholic may not know exactly what has been lost (e.g., they know who died, but not what that person represented to them). Melancholia (closely related to what we now call