Normal and Pathological mourning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8500 words

Normal and Pathological mourning - Essay Example The object thus is to evaluate the understanding of a model of mourning and object loss in the light of academic perspectives and to define a demarcation between normal and pathological mourning. Finally in the light of case studies and examples drawn from academic literature the Paper culminates with an attempt to formulate a diagnostic approach to facilitate better handling of mourning and grief which may turn depressive There are many ways in which we view the world and ourselves. We can go inward or go outward, forward or backward. Precisely defining the psychological processes which takes place in experiences and express it into certain behavior pattern has always been contentious and has occupied the minds of thinkers through out the ages, that is since the time people probably developed the faculty of introspection and analysis1. The obvious importance of knowing self, knowing the most innermost processes which goes on as we tackle everyday life lies in several assumptions about ourselves which without having a frame into which we can view ourselves will lead to a sort of a vicious intellectual cycle and places us in a paradoxical situation due to uncertainties, when unknowns overtake our attempt at articulation. And here lies the importance of the field of study opened by Freud and the array of thinkers and researchers which followed this path of probing for the very nature of our being including the innermost recesses of the mind, the unconscious. It is essential to abandon the overvaluation of the property of being conscious before it becomes possible to form any correct view of the origin of what is mental. In Lipps's words, the unconscious must be assumed to be the general basis of psychical life. The unconscious is the larger sphere, which includes within it the smaller sphere of the conscious. (Freud) To Freud, the influence of the unconscious is such that it shapes personality and behavior and understanding how the unconscious world has enormous significance as knowing the reality of the external world. This suggests that the internal psychical process which may be unarticulated is intimately related to processes which gather and process such sense data from the external world. To Freud every thing conscious "has an unconscious preliminary state," and the unconscious is "incompletely presented by the data of consciousness as is the external world by the communication of our sense organs ("The Interpretation of Dreams," 1900). We come then to a possible key principle in trying to understand the functionality of the unconscious as it may frame object loss and consequent psychological reaction to it which we may call the incompleteness principle. In such an observe phenomenon of mourning for example how was this complex of emotions could be triggered and brought to consciousness and how this "incompleteness" could lead to anxiety deep seated in the recess of the unconscious could enormously aid in facilitating awareness on the part of the mourner especially those which may have strong indication of