Psihoterapija, Vol. 38 No. 1-2, 2024.
Pregledni rad
https://doi.org/10.24869/psihei.2024.149
MOURNING AND DEPRESSIVE POSITION OR WHETHER THERE IS MOURNING WITHOUT DEPRESSIVE POSITION
Silvija Topić Lukačević
; Klinika za psihijatriju „Sveti Ivan“, Dnevna bolnica specijalizirana za provođenje preventivnog i terapijskog programa stresom i traumom uzrokovanih poremećaja (DB PITP STUP), Jankomir 11, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Mourning is a psychological prerequisite for psychic maturity. Objects of mourning can be
persons one has lost, the past, life situations and circumstances. Mourning makes it possi- ble to
accept the loss of what has actually already been lost. It is a process of parting with, rejecting
and freeing oneself from unrealistic fantasies and illusions about oneself, others and life, in
order to accept reality. Mourning is necessary if an individual wants to move on after experiencing
loss, and it has adaptive value since it allows the body to compensate for the imbalance that the
loss carries along. Regression and destabilization of psychic func- tioning arise as part of the
process of mourning, and if the experience of loss shakes the very foundations of the personality,
the previous perception of reality gets disrupted as well.Regression in mourning can sometimes affect all ego functions, and can lead to psychic and
psychotic decompensation.
The psychodynamic solution to mourning is reached by working through it. There are sev- eral
psychodynamic explanations of mourning, and most of them refer to or complement Melanie Klein’s
contributions to the object relations theory. Her explanation of the function- ing of the
paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, their lifelong dynamic and dialectical balance, helps
us understand both the process of mourning and working through mourning.
This paper presents the case report of a patient who reached out to us in order to get psy-
chotherapy treatment, whereby it was established that she experienced mourning that was never
completed or, rather, that she never started the process of mourning due to her inabili- ty to
reach a depressive position. One of the reasons for the above is the patient’s personality
structure and the fact that she predominantly functions in the paranoid-schizoid position, which
over time gave rise to further destabilization, eventually leading to psychoticism.
Ključne riječi
mourning; Melanie Klein; object relations theory; depressive position; paranoid-schizoid position
Hrčak ID:
328686
URI
Datum izdavanja:
18.12.2024.
Posjeta: 552 *