Mourning becomes us

Abstract

This paper posits that mourning is fundamentally a social process. The inability to mourn has dangerous consequences for the individual and for society. Social support and community networks are necessary in order to tolerate the pain of loss and overcome the resistance through sharing in the group. Based on clinical material from a two-year analytic training group run in an NHS psychotherapy department, the author argues that the developmental and therapeutic process of the group corresponded to the unfolding of the mourning process. The development of the capacity to mourn brought transformation in the group, leading to a more coherent sense of identity, both of individual members and of the group as a whole.