In 1917, when Freud first focused his psychoanalytic lens on the process of mourning, his beloved daughter Sophie had not yet perished in the devastating influenza pandemic that had global impact in the waning months of World War I. In his now classic paper, Mourning and Melancholia, Freud contrasts the grief process following the loss of a loved one, when emotional energy is redirected from investment in the external relationship to internal identification with the loved one (mourning); and the complicated bereavement associated with emotional loss (melancholia).

Adelman & Malawista (2013) cite a moving letter to Binswanger on the 36th birthday of Sophie, a full nine years after her death in 1920. From the posthumous publication of the correspondence (E. L. Freud, 1961), the letter reads,

   Although we know that after such a
   loss the acute state of mourning will
   subside, we also know we shall
   remain inconsolable and will never
   find a substitute ... and actually this is
   how it should be. It is the only way
   of perpetuating that love, which we
   do not want to relinquish. (p. 386)

This very human and revealing letter embodies what all of us who have experienced loss can attest; grief and mourning is complex, nuanced, and enduring. The internal and external construction of memorials exists side by side our inevitable submission to "a vicious awareness that this is a rented world" (Barnes, 2008, p. 24). Since Freud's inaugural publication, almost 400 articles have been published in analytic literature on the topic of grief, mourning, and loss. This special issue adds to that body of work.

In the first series of papers, Sorenson, Tisdale, & Bland; Barnhurst; Ventimiglia; and Hofer, Bland, & Tisdale present clinical encounters in which they explore the ravages of trauma and loss from both psychoanalytic and Christian perspectives. Kuehlthau reflects on the death of his infant son and the ways in which life and death became inextricably linked for him. Cernero, Strawn, & Abernethy offer an integrated theoretical model for group psychotherapy. Vande Kemp provides a review of literature dealing with death of the analyst.

It is our hope that these articles will enrich your theoretical understanding and clinical work. Grief is never far from our own experience and our clinical encounters, as we are never far from Jesus who is "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3, English Standard Version).

References

Adelman, A. J., & Malawista, K. L. (Eds.). (2013). The therapist in mourning: From the faraway nearby. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Barnes, J. (2008). Nothing to be frightened of. New York, NY: Knopf.

Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud: On the history of the psycho-analytic movement, papers on metapsychology and other works (Vol. XIV, pp. 237-258). London, UK: Hogarth Press.

Freud, E. L. (Ed.). (1961). Letter from Sigmund Freud to Ludwig Binswanger, April 11, 1929. Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939 (p. 386). London, UK: Hogarth Press.

Earl D. Bland

Rosemead School of Psychology/Private Practice

Theresa Clement Tisdale

Azusa Pacific University/Private Practice

Anita Lehmann Sorenson

Private Practice, Pasadena, CA

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Earl Bland at earl.bland@biola.edu.