Mourning and Melancholia

In 1917, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay titled ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. In this essay, he explains his theory on the psychological process of grief as a response to the loss of a loved one. He argues that even though mourning and melancholia share some similarities, they differ.

Mourning

Sigmund Freud explains that “mourning involves grave departures from the normal attitude to life” and “the reaction to the loss of someone who is loved, contains the same painful frame of mind, the same loss of interest in the outside world”. This process takes place in the conscious mind.

During mourning, the individual tends to detach emotional energy from the loss but still comprehend the loss. He describes them as feeling the loss externally through expressing grief. Mourning heals with time and is viewed as a healthy process.

Melancholia

Sigmund Freud explains that “Melancholia are profoundly painful dejection, cessation of interest in the outside world, loss of the capacity to love, inhibition of all activity and a lowering of the self-regarding feelings to a degree that finds utterance in self-reproaches and self-reviling and culminates in a delusional expectation of punishment.” This process takes place in the unconscious mind.

During melancholia the person is unable to comprehend the loss. He describes them as feeling the loss internally with deep sadness and being consumed by it. There is no resolution with melancholia and it is viewed as pathological.