MOURNING IN THE PSYCHOANALYTIC SITUATION AND IN SHAKESPEARE'S THE TEMPEST

Recognizing that mourning builds psychic structure, the author highlights the ubiquitous and essential nature of mourning in the psychoanalytic situation. Reality testing is intimately connected to mourning and is the warp on which psychic structure is woven in the analytic situation. Reality testing necessarily involves opportunities for mourning and thus will be present in every analytic hour. The confrontation with reality is the basis for all processes of mourning, or for creating defenses against this painful experience. The author views mourning as fundamentally a transformational process, and Shakespeare's The Tempest is used to illustrate this aspect of mourning.     

Nostalgia as a Linking Phenomenon

Immigrants and refugees who leave behind their countries, loved ones, and cultural environment experience loss and are obliged to go through a mourning process which may become complicated due to a variety of factors. Many such individuals create linking objects or linking phenomena that help them to continue to have contact with the past, while adjusting to their new environment. Nostalgia is the affect that accompanies linking objects and linking phenomena and at times functions itself as a linking phenomenon. The lack of nostalgia, poisoned nostalgia, and nostalgia in the service of adaptation are discussed with clinical examples.     

Trauma Accommodation and Anniversary Reactions in Children

Anniversary reactions in traumatized children have been well recognized in the literature. Examined herein are temporal issues in the mourning process often realized by traumatized children. The case study of Laura is presented as a clinical illustration of problems in trauma accommodation that include anniversary reactions in children. Anniversary reactions in children are more common than is generally recognized in clinical practice. Such reactions are more likely to be found among children who exhibit persistent, repetitive, but insufficient efforts of trauma mastery through their incomplete grief and inadequate mourning process. Clinical issues are discussed.     

Witnesses to Reality: Working Psychodynamically With Survivors of Terror 1

As generations of young men and women return from combat scarred not only physically but also psychologically by their experiences, as civil wars and genocide proliferate and refugees seek sanctuary in America from persecution in their native countries, even while others are held in violation of their international human rights by the United States government, this paper asks what role psychoanalysts can play in working with those who have survived violence and terror as adults. Offering a relational formulation of adult onset trauma, the author reviews some of the difficulties inherent in being called upon to bear witness to destructive social forces. The paper concludes with the case of a man who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay for the last 6 years.     

MOURNING,DREAMING, AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX

The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died—the triadic nature of the Oedipus complex ironically not yet discovered by him. In the author's belief, Freud's mourning and his attendant rich dream life occurring between 1896 and 1897 gave him access to the unconscious raw material that would eventually help him conceptualize the triadic structure at the instinctual core of the Oedipus complex.     

Mourning the Loss of the Idealized Self: A Transsexual Passage

Abstract

The few published psychoanalytic writings that exist regarding transsexual men and women tend to focus on the etiology of their gender identities and almost invariably define these patients as inherently pathological. Such myopic viewpoints leave no room for analysis and discussion of the transsexual patient's normal developmental process. In this paper, I use a Kleinian framework to depathologize the coping strategies employed by transsexual patients and to illustrate the importance of mourning in the development of a positive transsexual identity. A clinician who is able to sit comfortably with contradiction may facilitate the transsexual patient's mourning process—saying goodbye to the persecutory object of the past and letting go of the idealized image of the future.     

A Qualitative Study of the Career Aspirations of Resettled Young Sudanese and Somali Refugees

The study documents and explicates the academic experiences, visions, hopes and desires which shape the vocational aspirations of young Sudanese and a Somali refugee who have resettled in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the experiences of a sample of 14 young resettled refugees in Brisbane, Australia. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the interviews covered the aspirations of the participants across three time periods: life in the country of origin, transit and resettlement. Participants expressed high ambitions despite their experiences of school disruption pre resettlement and language difficulties post resettlement. The situation in the country of origin emerged as influential upon their aspirations in both pre and resettlement life. English language difficulties emerged as the most common consideration influencing aspirations following resettlement. A number of considerations were found that influenced their vocational aspirations before and after resettlement. Such considerations may enlighten service providers working with resettled young African refugees.     

Between the imaginary and the real: photographic portraits of mourning and of melancholia in Argentina

During Argentina's 'Dirty War' (1976-83), the military regime attempted to erase an entire population; today the photographs of the dead/missing stand in defiance, contradicting that attempted erasure of the desaparecidos. In this essay, I explain the connection between photography and loss, and how photography fits within Lacan's understanding of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, the Real, and the 'gaze'. I discuss complicated mourning (circumstances which inhibit/delay mourning) and the difficulties created by political disappearances: as long as the family members maintain the belief that their loved one(s) might still be alive, they cannot begin the process of mourning the permanently lost object. Beginning with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo and, using the web-based art exhibits of Marcelo Brodsky and Inés Ulanovsky, I analyze the role of the photograph in Argentina, how it serves as a linking object, how it is used to symbolize the dead/missing, and how it can function to facilitate mourning, or to serve as proof of pathological melancholia. I argue that such artistic representations of loss function to reinscribe healthy mourning rituals within the Argentine society.     

A Comparison of Wages by Gender and Region of Origin for Newly Arrived Refugees in the USA

The resettlement model supported by the US government aims to help recently arrived refugees achieve economic self-reliance within the first 90 to 180 days of arrival. In addition to the challenges they face in adapting to their new locations, however, refugees enter a US labor market characterized by preexisting wage disparities based on race and gender. Meanwhile, recent changes in US refugee and immigration policies have infused debates over nationalism, Islamophobia, and the economics of resettlement. In this context, it is critical to assess whether refugees face wage discrimination that may affect their ability to become economically self-reliant. Drawing on the International Rescue Committee’s administrative data on refugee resettlement, we examine the extent to which starting wages for newly arrived refugees differ by region of origin and gender. The study found consistent gender pay gaps among the majority of new arrivals. The study also identified lower wages for refugees arriving from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean compared to other regions. These trends suggest a need for more consistent agency monitoring of employment placement, and the development of strategies to ensure more equitable employment outcomes for refugees.     

Mourning the dead,mourning the disappeared: The enigma of the absent–presence

Freud's interest in the impact of death on the living goes back further than Mourning and Melancholia (1917e, [1915]). In Totem and Taboo (1912–13) Freud noted the ambivalence of the emotions we experience in relation to the dead. In this paper, I focus on Mourning and Melancholia as a landmark in the understanding of both the normal and psychopathological aspects of mourning and depressive processes in human beings. Mourning and Melancholia bridges Freud's first and second topographic theories of the psychic apparatus and constitutes for many authors the foundation of his theory of internal object relations. With this psychoanalytic understanding of mourning as a framework, I discuss ‘special mourning processes,’ such as the those confronted by psychoanalysts in Argentina when treating the relatives of thousands of people who were ‘disappeared’ by the military dictatorship in the 1970s; they are ‘special’ in the sense that the external reality [which] constitutes the starting point of the psychic mourning process, as described by Freud, is absent. I argue that the ‘absent–presence’ of the body as an enigmatic message initiates a special mourning process that bears certain characteristics of, and is isomorphic to, Laplanche's seduction theory.     

Nostalgia and lost identity

Nostalgia for the Soviet Union is a major social phenomenon in Russia today due to the irrevocable losses of the recent past in which Soviet citizens involuntarily became immigrants in their own country. With reference to discussions of nostalgia in philosophical and psychoanalytic literature, I suggest that nostalgia may represent either a defensive regression to the past or a progressive striving for wholeness through re‐connecting with what has been lost in the service of a greater integration. I compare this with the processes of adaptation seen in immigrants and provide a clinical illustration of a young man coming to terms with loss and change in the post‐Soviet era. When nostalgia is recognized as a legitimate emotional experience it may facilitate mourning and enable the integration of the past with the present and the development of a new identity.     

‘Just black sometimes’, part 2: reflections on an adolescent's journey

In this second article about work at a refugee centre for unaccompanied minors in Berlin, the author discusses his encounter with Syrian and Afghani adolescents who were enrolled in the program. Issues around adaptation to a new culture are explored with attention to the dynamics of conformity and marginalization. The questions of what happens to adolescent refugees separated from their families, and how their identity formation is shaped by this burden is explored in relation to the author's meeting with a Syrian adolescent living in Berlin. To illustrate the long reach of a missing father who has been left behind, characters from Virgil's Aeneid are discussed to amplify heroic and spiritual aspects within father‐son relationships. The interplay between needing help and allowing for resilience is explored as an important aspect of refugees’ transitions, while also considering variables such as dependence and independence, foreign and familiar, being with or without family, and adjusting to the present and/whilst relating to the past; tensions between these alternatives can create various psychosocial challenges for adolescent refugees.     

Do Patients With Psychosis Experience Loss and Grief As a Result of Their Illness?

BACKGROUND: Depression and suicidality are frequently reported in patients with psychosis and schizophrenia, but the grief process that may be associated with this illness has not been systematically studied. In this study, we examined whether patients diagnosed with psychosis identify, grieve, and mourn losses engendered by the illness. METHOD: 24 patients diagnosed with psychosis in the past five years were surveyed to indicate whether their illness led to losses, and to describe their responses to the losses. Psychosis-related perceived losses were surveyed using three subscales of a loss and grief questionnaire (loss of self, self-care, and roles). Their relationship with beliefs about the illness, symptomatology, coping style, and self-efficacy and insight was studied. RESULTS: 23 (96%) patients named specific losses, and 16 patients (67%) reported feelings associated with grief and mourning. More than half reported loss of self-esteem at the onset of illness and only half saw themselves as having improved in the past month. Patients reported more loss within the past month than at the onset of illness. In the past month, patients with an intact sense of self experienced greater self-efficacy (r = .568, p < .004) while those with loss of self reported feelings of shame (r = ?.582, p < .003). Only patients with insight associated the onset of illness with loss. In the past month, most patients saw themselves as experiencing loss. DISCUSSION: The study results suggest that at some distance from diagnosis, patients still experience themselves as having much loss due to their illness. These unresolved feelings may indicate complicated mourning. Insight appears to be associated with the ability to look back at the onset of the illness and recognize that it engendered losses. Further study of the process of and barriers to grief and mourning is recommended. In clinical practice, the assessment of grief as a part of post-psychotic recovery could lead to providing more appropriate treatment and lead to a positive outcome.     

Concurrent Grandparent Death and Birth of Schizophrenic Offspring: An Intriguing Finding

The finding, in the following study, of grandparent death within ± two years of birth of 41 per cent of schizophrenics (N= 70 ), a rate significantly higher than that in psychiatric (N= 45 ) and normal (N= 25 ) control groups, raises the possibility that this family stress factor may contribute to the development of schizophrenia. The implications are considered regarding the likelihood that the concurrent stresses of the death and the birth, two major events in the family life cycle, could confound and impede mourning and parenting processes. Two hypotheses are suggested: (a) that a bereaved parent may be emotionally unavailable to spouse and infant, and (b) that attention to the child may block mourning and absorb painful feelings, with the child assuming a special replacement role. The dysfunctional potential is related to other interacting variables, including biological factors, mourning resolution, and the family system. Further study is called for.     

Correlates of Vocational Success in Refugee Work Adaptation1

Past research on Indochinese refugees has shown that status inconsistency (loss of socioeconomic status from their last job in Indochina to their most recent job in the United States) has a strong negative effect on acculturation. This study examines refugee adaptation to working in America and the effect of status inconsistency on work performance. After three years in the U.S., there was great improvement in job performance. We had predicted that greater status inconsistency would be associated with poorer vocational performance. The status inconsistency effect was found for those refugees who previously held high-prestige positions in their homeland, but only during the time before they had spent 3 years in America. Previous high-prestige refugees who had lived in the U.S. for less than three years did not stay on their jobs as long as former low-prestige refugees. After three years, however, the former high-prestige refugees outlasted the former low-prestige refugees.     

Short term family therapy following parental loss: A case report

Summary The main therapeutic task was to help the family gradually finish the natural mourning process that was initially impeded by their denial. Negative memories of father, as well as the favorable ones, were brought to light, the expected punishment for the verbalization of these feelings was not fulfilled, and the family had a second chance to work through the mourning process in an atmosphere of acceptance, understanding, and support.The author wishes to express appreciation to Daniel Offer, M.D., and Andrea H. Lazarus, M.S., for their assistance.     

The missing tombstone: reflections on mourning and creativity

There are differences as well as similarities between mourning occurring after the loss of a single individual under ordinary civilized conditions, and mourning after multiple losses under traumatic conditions. A brief review of the psychoanalytic theory of mourning articulated by Freud in 1917 and modified in the 1960s is followed by an equally brief review of the relationship between artistic creativity and mourning. Because survivors of major disasters who suffer multiple losses need time to recover before they can engage the emotionally demanding task of mourning, the mourning process in these cases is frequently delayed. "Memorial spaces" appear to facilitate delayed mourning because such spaces are responsive to a deeply felt need by survivors of major tragedies to articulate what they experience as unspeakable and unshareable. The memories and the pain associated with them are then welcome because mourning is not about forgetting; mourning is about remembering, a process that may take a lifetime.     

Hanin: Nostalgia among Syrian refugees

We examined the psychological functions of nostalgia (hanin in Arabic) among Syrian refugees residing in Saudi Arabia, who were forcibly displaced during the Syrian civil war. Forced displacement entails disruption, loss, and mourning, creating a salient contrast between one's past and present circumstances, which could attenuate the benefits of nostalgia. Studying this population thus affords a strong test of the boundaries of nostalgia's functionality. We experimentally induced nostalgia via vivid autobiographical recall and then assessed various psychological functions, as well as current affect. A supplemental objective was to examine the role of dispositional resilience. Most established benefits of nostalgia also accrued to Syrian refugees. However, contrary to previous findings, nostalgia decreased optimism, highlighting the limits of its palliative capacity among displaced individuals. As hypothesized, the impact of nostalgia was moderated by dispositional resilience, which acted as a catalyst of the emotion's benefits and as an inhibitor of its costs.     

Parallel Process

Summary

This article addresses parallel processes between the author (a therapist) and client when each are mourning the death of their mother. Similarities and differences in their experience and reaction are discussed. The effect of the client's unexpressed grief from her early childhood loss is explored. The author also examines her own, more recent loss and develops a new perspective on its consequences. Tools are presented to help the client work on her grief, especially when the issue is “motherloss.” The impact of the therapeutic process on the client and author is delineated, and the client's reactions to ending her therapy are analyzed.