ABSTRACT
In Chapter 11, Ignácio Paim gives an account of how melancholia serves to explore not only the dependent relationship of the ego and the superego, but mainly to reflect upon the vulnerability of mourning. Paim’s detailed exposition reminds us about the vitality of the Freudian legacy, while his reflections on the narcissistic neurosis as a model for thinking about contemporary expressions of psychic suffering help us to understand the complex links held by an ego entangled in alienating identifications and prisoner of the superego’s idealizations.
