Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights multiple vertices in the realm of loss and their implicit dialectical tensions. These include development facilitation vs development retardation, average civil circumstances vs the context of war, individual vs organizations, mournable vs un-mournable, timely vs untimely, patients vs therapists, and cultural vs clinical. The book focuses on the personal anguish of mourning and its diverse outcomes, including those that are psychopathological and those that are creative and growth-promoting. Loss that is phase-specific, expected, and mitigated by compensatory supplies can be mourned; such mourning, in turn, leads to psychic maturity, renunciation of omnipotence, and ego growth. Loss that is anachronistic, unexpected, and not tempered by adequate ‘holuding’ structures results in psychic trauma. Some losses are out of one’s control. Others are self-caused. Some losses destroy all hope for betterment in the future.