The Struggle Against Mourning

By (author) Ilany Kogan

Not available to order

Publication date:

14 June 2007

Length of book:

263 pages

Publisher

Jason Aronson, Inc.

ISBN-13: 9780765707369

The main questions raised in this book are: How does the analyst help the patient to be in touch with pain and mourning? Is the relinquishment of defenses always desirable? And what is the analyst's role in the mourning process—should the analyst struggle to help patients relinquish defenses against pain and mourning, which they may experience as vital to their precarious psychic survival? Or should he or she accompany patients on their way to self-discovery, which may or may not result in the patients letting go of their defenses when faced with the pain and mourning inherent in trauma? the utilization of various defenses and the resulting unresolved mourning reflect the magnitude of the anxiety and pain that is found on the road to mourning. The ability to mourn and the capacity to bear some helplessness while still finding life meaningful are the objectives of the analytic work in this book.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Revisiting defenses against pain and mourning
Chapter 3 Obstacles to individual mourning
Chapter 4 Forever young
Chapter 5 Lust for love
Chapter 6 Unresolved mourning and its bearing on society
Chapter 7 Introduction
Chapter 8 Romania and its unresolved mourning
Chapter 9 From enactment to mental representation
Chapter 10 Trauma, resilience and creative activity
Chapter 11 On being a dead, beloved child
Chapter 12 Obstacles to mourning in an age of terror
Chapter 13 Who am I—Trauma and identity
Chapter 14 The role of the analyst in the analytic cure during times of chronic stress
Chapter 15 Working with Holocaust survivors' offspring in the shadow of terror
Chapter 16 Epilogue

For decades Ilany Kogan has devoted her professional life to studying adaptation and mal-adaptation following loss, especially loss associated with massive traumas. In this passionately and lucidly written book she describes societal mourning and illustrates its lasting effects, such as the unresolved mourning in Israel and Romania. She explores individual mourning as well, using patients' cases to tell moving stories that range from the person who responded to internal deadness with eroticism to anotherwho was a replacement child. She includes a study of the life of Solomon Perel, the hero of the movie Europa, Europa whom I interviewed years ago and whom I consider a living monument, recalling both the horror of Nazism and the human resilience forsurvival. This excellent book can teach us many new nuances in the psychology of mourning, remind us of current losses in the age of terror, and induce in us a wish for a more peaceful world. It should be read not only by clinicians, but by anyone interested in a detailed exposure to conditions in which persons or societies are robbed of their ability and right to mourn.