ABSTRACT
We tend to think of mourning in the context of bereavement but, as Freud has pointed out, mourning occurs regularly as .a reaction to 'loss of a loved person or to the loss of some abstraction which has taken the place of one, such as one's country, liberty, an ideal and so on' (1917, p. 243)·
Some measure of grief and mourning occurs in all kinds of life-situations. Even quite ordinary changes such as a move to a new house, or area, involves sorrow at losing the familiar old surroundings and sometimes the closeness of friends. When we transfer to a new job we experience sadness at parting from our clients and colleagues; when we finish a period of training we regret leaving teachers who have enriched our minds and wonder how to manage without their support and help. Every step forward, as well as providing pleasure and new opportunities, means leaving something behind. We may turn away from it in disappointment and anger, but in as far as the past held good things which we treasure, we experience sadness and mourning at relinquishing them. Even children reaching adolescence often have deep feelings of 86
regret that childhood has come to an end. In middle age we mourn the loss of youth and with it youthful ideals and ambitions left unfulfilled, and in old age we mourn the loss of energy and functions and the end of our own life. Facing the finiteness of our personal life and that of our loved ones is the most painful of the many processes of mourning that we have to encounter.
