Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:43:12.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Failure to Mourn, and Melancholia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Jonathan R. Pedder
Jonathan R. Pedder*
Affiliation:
Maudsley Hospital, London, SE5
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper reviews ideas about depression and mourning from various quarters, particularly from psychoanalytic writings, from the work of George Brown on the social origins of depression and from some of the work in behavioural psychotherapy on guided mourning. Its essence is foreshadowed in a statement of Winnicott's: “If in an individual the depressive position has been achieved and fully established, then the reaction to loss is grief, or sadness. Where there is some degree of failure at the depressive position the result of loss is depression”.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 141 , Issue 4 , October 1982 , pp. 329 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, K. (1924) A short study of the development of the libido. In Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis (ed. Jones, Ernest). London: Hogarth Press (1927).Google Scholar
Bibring, E. (1953) The mechanisms of depression. In Affective Disorders (ed. Greenacre, P.). New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973) Attachment and Loss, Vol. II. Separation: Anxiety and Anger. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1980) Attachment and Loss. Vol. III. Loss: Sadness and Depression. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Breuer, J. & Freud, S. (1895) Studies on Hysteria. Standard Edition. Vol. 2.Google Scholar
Brown, D. G. & Pedder, J. R. (1979) Introduction to Psychotherapy. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978a) Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978b) Social origins of depression: a reply. Psychological Medicine, 8, 577–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dare, C. & Holder, A. (1981) Developmental aspects of the interaction between narcissism, self-esteem and object relations. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 62, 323–37.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1914) On Narcissism. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. Vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1917) Mourning and Melancholia. S.E. Vol. 14. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1923) The Ego and the Id. S.E. Vol. 19. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Furman, E. (1974) A Child's Parent Dies. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. W. (1976) Early trauma, dreaming and creativity: the works of Eugene O'Neill. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 3, 341–64.Google Scholar
Jacobson, E. (1964) The Self and the Object World. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Jaques, E. (1965) Death and the mid-life crisis. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 46, 502–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Joffe, W. G. & Sandler, J. (1965) Notes on pain, depression and individuation. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 20, 394–424.Google Scholar
Klein, M. (1934) A contribution to the psychogenesis of manic-depressive states. In Contributions to Psycho-Analysis (ed. Jones, Ernest). London: Hogarth Press (1948).Google Scholar
Klein, M. (1940) Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states. In Contributions to Psycho-Analysis (ed. Jones, Ernest). London: Hogarth Press (1948).Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1967) Melancholia: a historical review. In The State of Psychiatry. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Lewis, C. S. (1966) A Grief Observed. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Lewis, E. (1976) The management of still-birth: coping with an unreality. The Lancet, 2, 619–20.Google Scholar
Lieberman, S. (1978) Nineteen cases of morbid grief. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 159–63.Google Scholar
Mawson, D., Marks, I. M., Ramm, L. & Stern, R. S. (1981) Guided mourning for morbid grief: a controlled study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 185–93.Google Scholar
Mendelson, M. (1974) Psychoanalytic Concepts of Depression. New York: Spectrum.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M. (1972) Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Ramsay, R. W. (1977) Behavioural approaches to bereavement. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 131–5.Google Scholar
Segal, H. (1964) Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Tennant, C. & Bebbington, P. (1978) The social causation of depression: a critique of the work of Brown and his colleagues. Psychological Medicine, 8, 565–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1954) The depressive position in normal emotional development. In Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press (1975).Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1958) The capacity to be alone. In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press. (1965).Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1962) A personal view of the Kleinian contribution. In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press (1965).Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1963) The development of the capacity for concern. In The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press (1965).Google Scholar
Zetzel, E. R. (1970) The Capacity for Emotional Growth. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.