Influences on Freud's Mourning and Melancholia and its contextual validity.

Authors

David J. A. Dozois, University of Western OntarioFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2000

Journal

Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

Volume

20

Issue

2

First Page

167

Last Page

195

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1037/h0091208

Abstract

This article critically evaluates S. Freud's (1917) Mourning and Melancholia and challenges both the celebratory and reactionary views that treat this essay as an ahistorical and decontextualized "foundation-stone" of depression. Although many biographies have been written on Freud, the possible influences on his thinking in the area grief and depression have not been examined. Moreover, no reviews have investigated Freud's understanding of mourning and melancholia from the perspective of his own experiences with these difficulties. Following a brief overview of Freud's seminal paper, the historical psychiatric views on depression and the influences on Freud's conceptualization of mourning and melancholia are briefly discussed. Finally, an exegesis of the contextual validity of this model is presented.