Posted on May 15, 2014 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

This workshop will focus on the conceptualization of  mourning and melancholia (or depression) and what accounts for the differences between the two, a topic that Freud had addressed in his seminal 1915 paper “Mourning and Melancholia”. George Hagman and Peter Zimmermann tackle this question from the perspective of intersubjective self psychology.

 

 George has reconsidered the mourning process from a self psychological perspective and has published several papers and books on this topic, including the soon to be published: “New Mourning: Advances in the Psychoanalytic Understanding and Treatment of Bereavement, Mourning and Grief” (Routledge, 2015). George argues that a key aspect of the experience of bereavement is the impact of the loss on the self-organization of the bereaved. The deceased person functioned as an important part of her self, and it is how that relationship and its function is transformed, that is the heart of the mourning process.

 

 Peter has spent good part of his professional life thinking about depression from a self psychological perspective and has presented his ideas in many workshops over the past 30 years. Peter proposes that mourning is the emotional response to the loss of the  object as object. Melancholia is the emotional response to the loss of the object as selfobject.  In mourning the person laments the loss of the other; in melancholia the person laments the loss of the self.

 

 While both presenters share a self psychological viewpoint and have complementary views, they also arrive at divergent formulations. Following the presentations of their theories, George and Peter will engage in a dialogue, which will highlight their complementarities and differences and shed light on each topic. This dialogue then will serve as the basis for a discussion with the audience. 

 

See Events page for details.

 

Posted by Peter Zimmermann and George Hagman