ABSTRACT
Freud (1961) argued that the two great wellsprings of mental health are love and work. If Freud is correct, then job loss—the loss of one's work—may entail human disruption and pain worthy of our attention and understanding. In what follows we review research and theory on job loss, especially as it influences wellbeing, and in so doing, consider the evidence available concerning Freud's assertion about the importance of work for mental health. We begin by identifying three orienting assumptions that inform our review of job loss.
