This paper is a contribution to the sea change that is occurring in our culture's view of bereavement and mourning. Across disciplines, clinicians and researchers are questioning many of the assumptions that have influenced our conceptualizations about mourning over the past 80 years. Given that psychoanalysis has played a central role in the development of modern mourning theory (Rando, 1993;Parkes, 1981;Jacobs, 1993), a review of the current status of analytic thinking in this area is called for. This paper examines recent developments in the psychoanalytic theory and treatment of bereavement, mourning and grief. I will show how some contemporary analysts have proposed changes in the psychoanalytic model of mourning, which echo many of the points made by other disciplines. I will begin with a brief overview of the standard psychoanalytic model of mourning, which was based primarily on Freud's early metapsychological theories, and more specifically, on his paper Mourning, and Melancholia of 1915. Following this, I will discuss a number of recent critiques of the standard model as well as some proposals for its revision. These critiques target the asocial, intrapsychic nature of the standard model and its failure to address the full complexity of mourning reactions. I will then suggest an outline of a new psychoanalytic model of mourning that appears to be emerging from the current debate. In closing, I will discuss a case report that illustrates the implications of the new model of mourning for clinical practice. 3 Literature ReviewThis section will examine the major writings that have contributed significantly to what has been referred to as the standard psychoanalytic model of mourning. (Hagman, 1995) Firstly I do not believe that the analytic mourning literature is homogenous and without valuable deviations from the norm. However, what seems to be the case is that there has been a model that has dominated psychoanalytic thinking and practice since Freud originally outlined the basic components of his mourning theory in 1915. We will be concerned with the origin and development of that standard model.Freud's writings about mourning are few in number, as well as extremely brief, which is surprising when one considers the importance of the subject. They consist of several scattered references most of which are notes included in papers devoted to other subjects. Freud's most sustained discussion of mourning was in his 1915 paper Mourning and Melancholia. It was there that Freud first delineated the framework of what would become the standard model of mourning. However, that is not to say that Freud's intended to promulgate a standard model. Erna Furman (1974) argued that Freud's purpose might have been only to set up a model situation to explore the dynamics of narcissism and melancholia. Furman claimed that it was misleading to assume that Freud intended to portray 'actual mourning processes in their full clinical complexity.' (Pp. 241 -242) Nonetheless, analysts after Freud would grant truth status to Fr...

This paper proposes an integrative psychoanalytic model of the sense of beauty. The following definition is used: beauty is an aspect of the experience of idealisation in which an object(s), sound(s) or concept(s) is believed to possess qualities of formal perfection. The psychoanalytic literature regarding beauty is explored in depth and fundamental similarities are stressed. The author goes on to discuss the following topics: (1) beauty as sublimation: beauty reconciles the polarisation of self and world; (2) idealisation and beauty: the love of beauty is an indication of the importance of idealisation during development; (3) beauty as an interactive process: the sense of beauty is interactive and intersubjective; (4) the aesthetic and non‐aesthetic emotions: specific aesthetic emotions are experienced in response to the formal design of the beautiful object; (5) surrendering to beauty: beauty provides us with an occasion for transcendence and self‐renewal; (6) beauty's restorative function: the preservation or restoration of the relationship to the good object is of utmost importance; (7) the self‐integrative function of beauty: the sense of beauty can also reconcile and integrate self‐states of fragmentation and depletion; (8) beauty as a defence: in psychopathology, beauty can function defensively for the expression of unconscious impulses and fantasies, or as protection against self‐crisis; (9) beauty and mortality: the sense of beauty can alleviate anxiety regarding death and feelings of vulnerability. In closing the paper, the author offers a new understanding of Freud'semphasis on love of beauty as a defining trait of civilisation. For a people not to value beauty would mean that they cannot hope and cannot assert life over the inevitable and ubiquitous forces of entropy and death.

Ugliness results from the emergence into consciousness of certain fantasies that alter the person's aesthetic sense in such a way that the formal qualities of the experience, the shape, texture, and color, appear to become the sources of our most disturbing and repulsive feelings. This paper reviews the psychoanalytic writings concerning the problem of ugliness and offers a psychoanalytic model of this universal phenomenon. Clinical vignettes illustrate key points. The paper closes with a discussion of how ugliness can be an opportunity for both the analyst and the artist--he or she confronts ugliness, and through the analytic and creative process, brings form and perfection to disintegration and disorder.

This paper proposes an integrative psychoanalytic model of the sense of beauty. The following definition is used: beauty is an aspect of the experience of idealisation in which an object(s), sound(s) or concept(s) is believed to possess qualities of formal perfection. The psychoanalytic literature regarding beauty is explored in depth and fundamental similarities are stressed. The author goes on to discuss the following topics: (1) beauty as sublimation: beauty reconciles the polarisation of self and world; (2) idealisation and beauty: the love of beauty is an indication of the importance of idealisation during development; (3) beauty as an interactive process: the sense of beauty is interactive and intersubjective; (4) the aesthetic and non-aesthetic emotions: specific aesthetic emotions are experienced in response to the formal design of the beautiful object; (5) surrendering to beauty: beauty provides us with an occasion for transcendence and self-renewal; (6) beauty's restorative function: the preservation or restoration of the relationship to the good object is of utmost importance; (7) the self-integrative function of beauty: the sense of beauty can also reconcile and integrate self-states of fragmentation and depletion; (8) beauty as a defence: in psychopathology, beauty can function defensively for the expression of unconscious impulses and fantasies, or as protection against self-crisis; (9) beauty and mortality: the sense of beauty can alleviate anxiety regarding death and feelings of vulnerability. In closing the paper, the author offers a new understanding of Freud'semphasis on love of beauty as a defining trait of civilisation. For a people not to value beauty would mean that they cannot hope and cannot assert life over the inevitable and ubiquitous forces of entropy and death.

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