Explorations of Mourning in Psychoanalysis and Literature

Turning Ghosts into Ancestors

John Steiner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781041201199
  9781041212195
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040816974
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychoanalysis
• Index: Psychology

This book explores the conflict between holding on to and letting go of loss,
paying homage to Freud's classic 'Mourning and Melancholia' and building
on its foundation with contemporary ideas.
Losses are met throughout life and are either accepted and mourned
or resented and denied. Sometimes mourning is inappropriate or premature
because losses can be prevented, and unfinished business needs to be
completed. Eventually, however, accepting and mourning the loss confers
enormous benefits, many of which arise from the development of symbolic
thinking that enables ghosts to be turned into ancestors. These themes are
explored in clinical material and in extracts from literature. They enable some
of the ideas of Freud, Klein, and Bion to be expanded and updated. The book
ends with an edited transcript of interviews discussing the author's personal
history in relation to his work.
With insights from across the author's distinguished psychoanalytic career
and a deep understanding of literature, this is key reading for all psychoanalysts,
and anyone who wants to understand loss.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 Mourning and Melancholia: A Review and Kleinian Addendum
• 2 Before and After the Fall: Horizontal and Vertical Object Orientations in the Analysis of a Patient with Grievances
• 3 Mourning in Hamlet: Turning Ghosts into Ancestors
• 4 Injury, Rage, Grievance, and Revenge in the Wrath of Achilles
• 5 Successful and Unsuccessful Mourning: Revisiting Klein
• 6 To Modify or to Defy the Super-Ego: Revisiting ‘The Ego and the Id’
• 7 Romantic and Mature Love: ‘Tell me where is fancy bred’
• 8 Chaos, Freedom, and Order in the Analytic Setting
• 9 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Concrete Thinking: The Numbing Feeling of Reality
• 10 Acquiring a Personal Identity
• 11 The Impostor Revisited
• 12 Personal Reminiscences from Interviews with Daniel Pick
• References
• Index