Three Faces of Mourning: Melancholia, Manic Defense, and Moving on(Margaret S. Mahler)

Mourning and the importance of the capacity to bear some helplessness, while still finding pleasure in life, are central to this tightly organized volume. The multi-faceted processes involved in mourning and adaptation are addressed.

About the Author :
Salman Akhtar M.D., is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. His more than 175 scientific publications also include eighteen edited or co-edited books. Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Award (1995), the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), ASPP's Sigmund Freud Award (2000), and the Edith Sabshin Award of the American Psychoanalytic Association (2000).

Review :
No subject is more universal to life and the human condition than object loss and mourning. It cuts across theoretical boundaries and is addressed by virtually all psychologies, religions, and culture. In this timely and superbly edited volume, the authors weave a sophisticated Mahlerian understanding into their rich clinical material. Incorporating this unique developmental perspective throughout the life cycle of both men and women, from early childhood into mature adulthood, it advances our understanding of the mourning process. This book is a necessary contribution to the literature and will greatly enhance the clinician's ability to handle any patient who suffers from loss. This valuable book accomplishes two important aims. The first and most obvious is an exploration of the process of mourning, here underlined as based on the vicissitudes of the separation-individuation phase, and an essential aspect of every subsequent maturational transformation of loss and regression into increased autonomy and capabilities. The second is that the rich clinical material in this readable and evocative book demonstrates the clinical utility of Mahler's still-evolving paradigm. Under the poetic and scholarly editorship of Salman Akhtar, Three Faces of Mourning is a well-integrated, coherent aggregate of new and classical material on the subjects of loss, mourning, and sadness. The topics include mourning as a necessary part of the human condition; developmental aspects of mourning; the profound impact of the loss of mother upon daughters; technical issues in treatment; and a host of creative and well-informed accounts of what constitute successful or unsuccessful mourning. The entire book is written with remarkable clarity, open-minded scholarship, and legitimate authoritativeness.