ABSTRACT
In a great variety of contexts, find Mary lamenting the suffering, dying, and death of her son on the cross: in homilies, liturgical passages, passion plays, mystery plays, prose narrations of the passion, lyric poetry, hymns, and of course in stand-alone laments. Nevertheless, for purposes of studying the psychology of marian lamentation, it is useful to examine some representative passages, both from sources known earlier in the East as well as from later sources in the West. In a great variety of contexts, psychoanalysts find Mary lamenting the suffering, dying, and death of her son on the cross: in homilies, liturgical passages, passion plays, mystery plays, prose narrations of the passion, lyric poetry, hymns, and of course in stand-alone laments. From a historical viewpoint, what is curious about Mary's affective involvement in her son's passion in the West is the fact that it happens relatively late there.
