Abstract
This reflection on the book /Mourning and Religion/ (2008) offers a reading of Freud’s foundational text /Mourning and Melancholia/ in which the relationship between mourning and melancholia is theorized slightly differently from that in /Mourning and Religion./ Mourning and melancholia are here seen as clinically distinct responses to object loss: melancholia resulting from a more unconsciously ambivalent and complex relationship to the lost object. And drawing on the work of Hans Loewald, mourning is understood as more dialectical and less linear. Some implications of these models of mourning and melancholia for a psychoanalysis of the origin of the field of religious studies are mentioned.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brickman, C. (2008). The persistence of the past. In W. Parsons, D. Jonte-Pace & S. Hanking (Eds.), Mourning religion (pp. 44–62). Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Freud, S. (1917/2005). Mourning and melancholia. In S. Whiteside (Trans.), On murder, mourning, and melancholia (pp. 201–218). London: Penguin Books.
Loewald, H. (1978). Psychoanalysis and the history of the individual. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Parsons, W., Jonte-Pace, D., & Hanking, S. (eds). (2008). Mourning religion. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, J.W. Mourning, Melancholia and Religious Studies: Is the “Lost Object” Really Lost?. Pastoral Psychol 59, 379–384 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-009-0224-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-009-0224-8