Freud Brinkema Derrida Antal Eng Butler Armstrong

(intro)
Mourning Mourning is Freud famously In mourning we Due to the the politics of The presumptions
regularly the distinguishes find ourselves articulation of mourning might that the future
reaction to the “the normal at a loss, no personal grief be described as follows the past,
loss of a loved emotion” of longer and loss, that creative that mourning
person, or to mourning from ourselves, as if mourning is process might follow
the loss of the pathological the singular regarded as a mediating a melancholia, that
some form of shock of what dubious topic hopeful or mourning might
abstraction depressive we must bear with its hopeless be completed are
which has melancholia. (I had altered the numerous relationship all poignantly
taken place of will remain with very medium in discussions in between loss called into
one, such as these two poles which it was to sociological, and history. The question in these
one’s country, for now; be registered. anthropological, essays in Loss pages as we
liberty, an however, a third But even if the psychological, collectively realize a series of
ideal, and so term, “grief,” will death of a and examine this paradoxes: the
on. In some soon insinuate friend appears psychoanalytical process, past is
people the itself, and much unthinkable, approaches. (2) exploring how irrecoverable and
same hinges on their unspeakable, loss has been the past is not
influences distinction.) The we are In mourning, animated for past; the past is
produce loss that nonetheless, being in hopeful and the resource for
melancholia compels says Derrida, accordance with hopeless the future and the
instead of mourning can called upon to his mission politics. (2) future is the
mourning and be of a loved speak, to break impossible, the redemption of the
we person or a the silence, to mission of After Freud it past; loss must be
consequently valued participate in deconstruction— has become marked and it
suspect them abstraction; the codes and namely, ‘to allow ever more cannot be
pathological Freud’s rites of the coming of important to represented; loss
disposition. examples are mourning. the entirely consider an fractures
(243) “fatherland, "Speaking is other’ in its intellectual and representation
liberty, an impossible," ‘otherness’— political itself and loss
Profound ideal,” which is writes Derrida Derrida seems genealogy of precipitates its
mourning, the one reason that in the wake of to find his own loss through own modes of
reaction to the theorizations of Paul de Man's voice (Derrida melancholia. In expression. (467)
nostalgia death, "but so 2007b: 39). (2) “Mourning and
loss of (nostos [to too would be Melancholia” Like the lining of a
someone who return home]; silence or mourning is (1917), Freud dress at the hem
is loved, algos [pain]) are absence or a strongly related writes that or the lapel—
contains the so reminiscent refusal to share to friendship and “mourning is mourning is thus
same painful of those of grief. one's sad survival; more regularly the likened to the
frame of mind, In Trauerarbeit ness." (5). exactly, reaction to the material of
the same loss (the work of friendship is loss of a loved clothing, the
of interest in mourning), the Mourning dedicated to person, or to the material that is
the outside mourner tests consists in mourning before loss of some mostly hidden,
world—in so reality to recognizing the actual death abstraction that is suddenly,
far as it does ascertain that that the dead of a friend as if which has taken even
not recall “the loved are now only friendship had to the place of one, unexpectedly, felt
him—the object no longer "in us," now exist in such as one’s against the flesh,
same loss of exists,” and only images mourning. Let country, liberty, the leg or the
capacity to ultimately, in "for us." And me quote the an ideal, and so neck, and so
adopt any new labor that is yet there is a famous passage on.” Freud’s mourning is
object of love both processual limit to this from the work of observations on staged here as a
(which would and interiorization, friendship (4): the overlapping certain encounter
mean durational—“the one that comes qualities of the between a
replacing him) task is carried not from some In his Memoires, lost object—a commodified
and the same through bit by impermeability Derrida also person or an material and the
turning away bit, under great of a boundary deals with the abstraction— limb that knows it
from any expense of time between two nature of true provides the only on occasion.
activity that is and cathectic homogeneous ‘mourning’ and theoretical frame Mourning is
not connected energy”—the spaces but ‘true’ organizing the likened to an
with thoughts libido withdraws from a different remembrance three parts of “interior” region of
of him. (244) its cathexes organization of while paying this collection: clothing that is
from the space. For the attention to the “Bodily suddenly, and
The mood of missing object part that is "in most important Remains,” perhaps with
mourning is a potentially to us" comes ideas and tropes “Spatial some
‘painful’ one. redirect the before and is of the de Manian Remains,” and embarrassment,
(244) energies of that greater than oeuvre (8). “Ideal Remains.” exposed, not to
attachment the whole, that (3) the public eye, but
In mourning it elsewhere. (57) is, comes In his citation, to the flesh itself.
is the world before and is Derrida mimes This is a
which has While grieving greater than de Man’s In “Mourning presence, a
become poor is certainly us; the part quotation marks and proximity, that
and empty; in unpleasant and that is seen by put around Melancholia,” undoes what
melancholia it “involves grave us first sees mourning: ‘[t]rue Freud attempts appears, that is
is the ego departures from and looks at us “mourning” is to draw a clear counter to the
itself. (246) the normal as our origin less deluded distinction effect of
attitude to life,” and our law [and] [t]he most between these appearance, but is
In the first Freud regards it (10). it can do is to two mental also part of the
place, normal as a non- allow for non- states. He realm of
mourning, too, morbid, Though "the comprehension’ contends that appearance itself:
overcomes the comprehensible modes of (de Man 1984: mourning is a mourning
loss of the disposition, and interiorization 262, italics in the psychic process emerges as the
object, and it, he assures the or of original). in which libido is lining of the dress,
too, while it reader that subjectification withdrawn from where the dress
lasts, absorbs “after a lapse of that Derrida also a lost object. is, as it were,
all the time it will be psychoanalysis thinks that the This withdrawal laughing. It tinges
energies of overcome.” By talks about are Freudian cannot be the appearance; it
the ego. (255) contrast, in some ‘normal’ work of enacted at once. suggests an
melancholia is respects mourning is Instead, libido is “underneath,” but
the undeniable in unsuccessful as detached bit by it is still part of
pathological, the work of it operates with bit so that appearance, its
morbid, mourning", the other’s eventually the frame, its artifice,
problematic interiorization interiorisation, mourner is able its suggestiveness
version of is never that is, with the to declare the and potential
mourning. One completed and, abandonment of object dead and undoing. And
of the most because of this the other’s to move on to mourning is,
significant reorganization other-ness. invest in new ineluctably, an
differences of space, Whereas true objects. In encounter with
between the remains in the mourning is the contrast with sensuousness,
two terms is in end impossible work mourning, Freud but not a “natural”
their impossible. of mourning, describes one, one that is
relationships to According to which will be melancholia as conditioned by the
temporality: Derrida, successful if it an enduring proximity of the
melancholia interiorization fails: it is ‘an devotion on the artifact to flesh.
takes an cannot—must aborted part of the ego to That mourning is
expanded not—be interiorization the lost object. A subjected to a
duration, it denied; the [that] is at the mourning metaphorical
persists and other is indeed same time a without end, identification with
continues reduced to respect for the melancholia the artifice that
indefinitely, images "in us” other as other, a results from the brings the body
adhering to (11). sort of tender inability to into view suggests
time; mourning, rejection, a resolve the grief the very process
by contrast, In mourning, movement of and by which
because it can the renunciation ambivalence mourning works. It
and will be unqualifiable which leaves the precipitated by displays, and it
overcome, has event is other alone, the loss of the displays the body
a finite future. repeated; the outside, over loved object, in a certain
(57) proper name there, in his place, or ideal. sensuousness,
bespeaks a death, outside of (3) without purpose,
For Laplanche, singular death us’ (Derrida without direction,
mourning is “the and yet allows 1986: 35) (8). [W]e might but not, therefore,
work of us to speak of observe that in without
memory” and Freud’s initial
that death, to Alas’, we think, movement. (470)
“an affect with a
duration
anticipate and ‘this conception of
(Daueraffekt): it prepare for it, interiorization’ melancholia, the Benjamin then
has a beginning to read it (15). (‘whatever the past is neither makes this
and an end, it truth’ is) is the fixed nor connection clearer
occupies a In "each death" most important complete. Unlike when his
lapse of time.” there is an end and most mourning, in discussion of
Unlike the of the world, which the past is mourning blends
impossible
overcoming of
and yet the feature of the declared into a discussion
mourning,
which is rhetoric of Derridean work resolved, of melancholia. In
achieved mourning of mourning. finished, and the early Freud, of
through work allows us to Although he is dead, in course,
and over time, speak of this clearly aware of melancholia the melancholia was
Freud describes end and the past remains defined as the
melancholia as multiply it, both steadfastly alive failure of
psychoanalytical
a “state of
grief”—endless, to anticipate it discourses in the present. mourning, as its
undifferentiated, and repeat it— concerning the By engaging in disavowal, and
a state in its with regard not work of “countless something of that
most precise only to one mourning and separate distinction clearly
sense, involving friend, one he frequently struggles” with also works for
stasis and proper name, alludes to loss, Benjamin. But his
“profoundly
but many, one Freud’s and melancholia exposition also
painful
dejection, death after Abraham and might be said to allows the slide of
abrogation of another. The Torok’s seminal constitute, as mourning into
interest in the "death of the texts, he is Benjamin would melancholia.
outside world.” other" is the inclined to describe it, an (471)
"first death", as deconstruct the ongoing and
If mourning is Levinas says, dichotomies of open Mourning is the
the origin or and yet the first melancholia vs. relationship with state of mind in
point of death gets mourning, and the past— which feeling
illumination, repeated. With incorporation vs. bringing its revives the empty
conveying or each first death introjection. ghosts and world in the form
transferring the the whole According to specters, its of a mask [das
evidentiary world is lost, Derrida, ‘true or flaring and Gefühl die
power of its and yet with faithful fleeting images, entleerte Welt
self- each we are mourning’, into the present. maskenhaft
evidentness, called to labelled (3-4) neubelebt], and
then logically it reckon our ‘impossible’, can derives an
could have light losses (15). only succeed In this regard, enigmatic
shed on it as a when it fails, but we find in satisfaction in
source or cause Perhaps what ‘it would have to Freud’s contemplating it.
independent of we mourn is fail [...] in failing conception of Every feeling is
that which it thus always well’ (Derrida melancholia’s bound to an a
generates. nothing other 2001: 144 italics persistent priori object, and
What to make, than our very in the original). struggle with its the representation
then, of the ability to This ‘failing well’, lost objects not of this object is its
consequence identify, our though it sounds simply a phenomenology.
on which mastery over as an aporia, is “grasping” and Accordingly, the
Laplanche the other and defined as the “holding” on to a theory of
insists: that over death, as force and the fixed notion of mourning, which
mourning must we yield to a law of mourning the past but emerged
become “that on force that is not in the Marin rather a unmistakably as a
which there ours, a force eulogy (Derrida continuous pendant to the
would be no that always 2001: 144). In engagement theory of tragedy,
light to be exceeds the Memoires, with loss and its can only be
shed”? rhetoric of Derrida also remains. This developed in the
mourning (17). explains how the engagement description of that
Mourning is faithful mourning generates sites world which is
shrouded in interiorises the for memory and revealed under
prohibitive other, making history, for the the gaze of the
darkness
it/him/her part of rewriting of the melancholy man.
because it casts
the light that us, while ‘an past as well as The world is
illuminates the aborted the reimagining revived in a
system and is interiorization is of the future. masked form, in a
thus that on at the same time While mourning masked way, not
which no light a respect for the abandons lost as a mask, but
could be shed, other as other objects by laying through a form of
and
[...] which leaves their histories to masking and as its
melancholia is
shrouded in an the other alone, rest, result. The
absorptive light outside, over melancholia’s masking does not
because it there, in his continued and precisely conceal,
consumes death, outside of open relation to since what is lost
entirely the light us’ (Der-rida the past finally cannot be
that illuminates 1986: 35). On allows us to gain recovered, but it
the system and
the one hand, new marks the
reflects nothing
in turn. he really intends perspectives on simultaneous
to keep the and new condition of an
What Freud’s other outside in understandings irrecoverable loss
remarks about its alterity, on of lost objects that gives way to a
the “peculiar the other hand, (4) reanimation of an
painfulness” of he invites the evacuated world.
mourning other to come Ultimately, we (139; German,
suggest—along inside in its learn, the work 318)
with his singularity (9). of mourning is
continual not possible The laws
placing of its without governing the
agony as, melancholia. In Trauerspiel are to
variously, a The Ego and the be found in the
riddle, a Id (1923), Freud heart of mourning,
mystery, a comes to this but mourning is
peculiarity, and conclusion by not personal: it is
yet, understanding not the mourning
simultaneously, that the ego is of a particular poet
self-evident constituted or individual: this
(selbstverständ- through the is “a feeling that is
lich)—is that remains of released from any
mourning, far abandoned empirical subject
from casting object-cathexes. and is intimately
unreturnable (4) bound to the
light on fullness of an
melancholia, object” (139).
casts its (471)
originary beam
on the discipline Benjamin can and
of analysis and does write that
is thus external “the deadening of
to the system emotions in
that interrogates mourning can
it. Mourning’s produce a
self-evidence is pathological state,
not an but this state, it will
obviousness turn out, will
contained within characterize our
the discipline of relation to history;
psychoanalysis a symptom of
but an depersonalization,
evidentiary alienation from the
promise visible body, and then, in
only to and which the most
within itself as a simple object
logic. appears to be a
symbol of some
enigmatic wisdom
the “peculiar because it lacks
painfulness” of any natural,
mourning is creative
transformed or relationship to us”
displaced into (140). (471)
the peculiar
painfulness of It may be that the
the failure of distinction finally
psychoanalytic between
meta-language mourning and
(a kind of melancholia does
disciplinary not hold, not only
grief). Mourning for the reasons
remains the that became
unanswerable apparent in Freud,
question of but also because
analysis, the they are,
blind spot inevitably,
around which experienced in a
the discipline’s certain
questions of configuration of
and to loss are simultaneity and
organized. succession. Many
of the essays here
As framed by refer to the
the editors, sensuality of
“The politics of melancholia, to its
mourning might form of pleasure,
be described as its mode of
the creative becoming, and
process therefore reject its
mediating a identification with
hopeful or paralysis. But it
hopeless probably remains
relationship true that it is only
between loss because we know
and history.” its stasis that we
(67) can trace its
motion, and that
Thus, a “politics we want to. The
of mourning” rituals of mourning
that involves are sites of
mediation merriment;
requires a Benjamin knew
dialecticizing of this as well, but as
that which is his text effectively
unmediatable in shows, it is not
the original always possible to
treatment of keep the dance
mourning. (67) alive. (472)

This specific
theoretical loss
is the death of
that “peculiar
painfulness” of
mourning on
which Freud
insisted. The
dirty secret of
mournincholia is
that it principally
has to do with
remains, not
losses; the
living, not the
dead; and the
pleasure and
potentiality of
ongoing
struggle in
place of breath-
strangling
anguish when
objects or
lovers go
missing. (69)

mourning the
public
manifestation of
that interior
state to the
outside world
(rituals,
customs,
shared beliefs).
In this usage,
grief involves
emotional,
cognitive, and
physical
responses to
loss centered
around affective
reactions such
as anger, rage,
anxiety, fear,
nausea,
hysteria,
numbness and
denial.
Mourning, by
contrast, is
often figured as
formalized or
ritualized
responses to
death: funerals,
eulogizing,
memorial
services, and
burial habits.
(72)

“Mourn” is the
older word, with
the Oxford
English
Dictionary
noting instances
back to circa
888. Its roots
suggest morna
(to pine away);
mornen (to be
axious or
careful, evoking
Freud’s query
about when loss
leads to anxiety
and when to
mourning); and
in an obsolete
form (but one
that evocatively
suggests the
ululations of
keeners,
weepers, and
wailers),
“mourn” means
murmur or
murmuring
sound. The
connection
between
“mourn” and “to
be anxious”
may come from
smer- (to
remember) of
from mer- (to
die or wither).
(72)

The first
definition of
mourning in its
current usage is
“to feel sorrow,
grief, or regret
(often with the
added notion of
expressing
one’s grief),”
tellingly
muddled for its
identification or
mourning with
grief and
subsequent
separation of
the two as a
quality and an
 expressive
activity. (72)

Melancholia The melancholia is In this collection, The presumptions

distinguishing the “loss” functions that the future
mental pathological, as a placeholder follows the past,
features of morbid, of sorts—what that mourning
melancholia problematic Freud calls in might follow
are a version of The melancholia, that
profoundly mourning. One Interpretation of mourning might
painful of the most Dreams a be completed are
dejection, significant “theoretical all poignantly
cessation of differences fiction.” “Loss” called into
interest in the between the names what is question in these
outside world, two terms is in apprehended by pages as we
loss of the their discourses and realize a series of
capacity to relationships to practices of paradoxes: the
love, inhibition temporality: mourning, past is
of all activity, melancholia melancholia, irrecoverable and
and lowering takes an nostalgia, the past is not
of the self- expanded sadness, past; the past is
regarding duration, it trauma, and the resource for
feelings to a persists and depression. In the future and the
degree that continues particular, Loss future is the
finds utterance indefinitely, focuses upon redemption of the
in self- adhering to the shifting past; loss must be
reproaches time; mourning, meanings of marked and it
and self- by contrast, melancholia, a cannot be
revilings, and because it can theoretical represented; loss
culminates in and will be concept with a fractures
a delusional overcome, has long and representation
expectation of a finite future. expansive itself and loss
punishment. (57) pedigree dating precipitates its
(244) to classical own modes of
times (explored expression. (467)
In one set of Freud describes in the following
cases it is melancholia as sections of this Like the lining of a
evident that a “state of introduction). As dress at the hem
melancholia grief”—endless, both a formal or the lapel—
too may be undifferentiated, relation and a mourning is thus
the reaction to a state in its structure of likened to the
the loss of a most precise feeling, a material of
loved object. sense, involving mechanism of clothing, the
Where the stasis and disavowal and a material that is
exciting “profoundly constellation of mostly hidden,
causes are painful affect, that is suddenly,
different one dejection, melancholia even
can recognize abrogation of offers a unexpectedly, felt
that there is a interest in the capaciousness against the flesh,
loss of a more outside world.” of meaning in the leg or the
ideal kind. The In addition to relation to losses neck, and so
object that has the mournful encompassing mourning is
not perhaps attitude toward the individual staged here as a
actually died, the missing and the certain encounter
but has been person or ideal, collective, the between a
lost as an the melancholic spiritual and the commodified
object of love. adds a material, the material and the
(245) supplementary psychic and the limb that knows it
loss in a social, the only on occasion.
The self- subsequent aesthetic and Mourning is
tormenting in depletion of “the the political. (2- likened to an
melancholia, capacity to love” 3) “interior” region of
which is and an clothing that is
without doubt inhibition of After Freud it suddenly, and
enjoyable, vitality and has become perhaps with
signifies, just engagement. ever more some
like the (57) important to embarrassment,
corresponding consider an exposed, not to
phenomenon melancholia is intellectual and the public eye, but
in obsessional shrouded in an political to the flesh itself.
neurosis, a absorptive light genealogy of This is a
satisfaction of because it loss through presence, a
trends of consumes melancholia. In proximity, that
sadism and entirely the light “Mourning and undoes what
hate which that illuminates Melancholia” appears, that is
relate to an the system and (1917), Freud counter to the
object, and reflects nothing writes that effect of
which have in turn. The “mourning is appearance, but is
been turned gamble of regularly the also part of the
round upon Freud’s first line reaction to the realm of
the subject’s (the speculative loss of a loved appearance itself:
own self in the venture of person, or to the mourning
ways we have erhellen) is that loss of some emerges as the
been light can be cast abstraction lining of the dress,
discussing. at all on the which has taken where the dress
(251) painful matter at the place of one, is, as it were,
hand. such as one’s laughing. It tinges
country, liberty, the appearance; it
Melancholia’s an ideal, and so suggests an
inability to on.” Freud’s “underneath,” but
reflect back the observations on it is still part of
light cast on it the overlapping appearance, its
by mourning qualities of the frame, its artifice,
means that both lost object—a its suggestiveness
terms exist at person or an and potential
the antipode to abstraction— undoing. And
literal and provides the mourning is,
philosophical theoretical frame ineluctably, an
illumination. organizing the encounter with
three parts of sensuousness,
While this collection: but not a “natural”
mourning’s pain “Bodily one, one that is
is increasingly Remains,” conditioned by the
shrouded in “Spatial proximity of the
peculiar Remains,” and artifact to flesh.
darkness, “Ideal Remains.” That mourning is
melancholia (3) subjected to a
comes to metaphorical
contemplative In “Mourning identification with
light, fulfills the and the artifice that
promise of Melancholia,” brings the body
being Freud attempts into view suggests
illuminated from to draw a clear the very process
above, and distinction by which
takes on a between these mourning works. It
certain lightness two mental displays, and it
of ordinary ego- states. He displays the body
introjecting contends that in a certain
being mourning is a sensuousness,
psychic process without purpose,
“when it in which libido is without direction,
happens that a withdrawn from but not, therefore,
person has to a lost object. without
give up a sexual This withdrawal movement. (470)
object, there cannot be
quite often enacted at once. Benjamin then
ensues an Instead, libido is makes this
alteration of his detached bit by connection clearer
ego which can bit so that when his
only be eventually the discussion of
described as a mourner is able mourning blends
setting up of the to declare the into a discussion
object inside the object dead and of melancholia. In
ego, as it to move on to the early Freud, of
occurs in invest in new course,
melancholia.” objects. In melancholia was
contrast with defined as the
Freud’s mourning, Freud failure of
insistence in describes mourning, as its
1917 that in melancholia as disavowal, and
melancholia an enduring something of that
there are devotion on the distinction clearly
“countless part of the ego to also works for
separate the lost object. A Benjamin. But his
struggles” over mourning exposition also
the lost object without end, allows the slide of
has made it a melancholia mourning into
contemporary results from the melancholia.
figure for an inability to (471)
ongoing, never- resolve the grief
ending and Mourning is the
negotiation or ambivalence state of mind in
relationship with precipitated by which feeling
some missing the loss of the revives the empty
thing. (65) loved object, world in the form
place, or ideal. of a mask [das
The culmination (3) Gefühl die
of this trend can entleerte Welt
be seen in the [W]e might maskenhaft
anthology Loss observe that in neubelebt], and
(2003), edited Freud’s initial derives an
by David Eng conception of enigmatic
and David melancholia, the satisfaction in
Kazanjuan, in past is neither contemplating it.
which fixed nor Every feeling is
melancholia complete. Unlike bound to an a
constitutes “an mourning, in priori object, and
ongoing and which the past is the representation
open declared of this object is its
relationship with resolved, phenomenology.
the past— finished, and Accordingly, the
bringing the dead, in theory of
ghosts and melancholia the mourning, which
specters, its past remains emerged
flaring and steadfastly alive unmistakably as a
fleeting images, in the present. pendant to the
into the By engaging in theory of tragedy,
present.” (65) “countless can only be
separate developed in the
In Loss, struggles” with description of that
melancholia is loss, world which is
redescribed as melancholia revealed under
a rich site for might be said to the gaze of the
rethinking constitute, as melancholy man.
losses both Benjamin would The world is
individual and describe it, an revived in a
collective in a ongoing and masked form, in a
non- open masked way, not
pathological, relationship with as a mask, but
non-narcissistic the past— through a form of
manner. “This bringing its masking and as its
attention to ghosts and result. The
remains,” insist specters, its masking does not
the editors, flaring and precisely conceal,
“generates a fleeting images, since what is lost
politics of into the present. cannot be
mourning that (3-4) recovered, but it
might be active marks the
rather than In this regard, simultaneous
reactive, we find in condition of an
prescient rather Freud’s irrecoverable loss
than nostalgic, conception of that gives way to a
abundant rather melancholia’s reanimation of an
than lacking, persistent evacuated world.
social rather struggle with its (139; German,
than solipsistic, lost objects not 318)
militant rather simply a
than “grasping” and The laws
reactionary.” “holding” on to a governing the
(66) fixed notion of Trauerspiel are to
 the past but be found in the
Melancholia in rather a heart of mourning,
this school of continuous but mourning is
thought is engagement not personal: it is
figured as what with loss and its not the mourning
founds remains. This of a particular poet
collective engagement or individual: this
politics and generates sites is “a feeling that is
remembrance. for memory and released from any
(66) history, for the empirical subject
rewriting of the and is intimately
This shifting past as well as bound to the
meaning of the reimagining fullness of an
melancholia of the future. object” (139).
means that one While mourning (471)
key trait of its abandons lost
definition—its objects by laying Benjamin can and
fundamental their histories to does write that
difference from rest, “the deadening of
mourning—is melancholia’s emotions in
blurred. continued and mourning can
Melancholy open relation to produce a
comes to take the past finally pathological state,
on every allows us to gain but this state, it will
positive new turn out, will
conceptual perspectives on characterize our
attribute and new relation to history;
previously understandings a symptom of
denied it: as a of lost objects depersonalization,
projective reach (4) alienation from the
into the history body, and then, in
totality that Ultimately, we which the most
precedes an learn, the work simple object
individual or of mourning is appears to be a
society far from not possible symbol of some
the introjective without enigmatic wisdom
ambivalence melancholia. In because it lacks
and solipsistic The Ego and the any natural,
suffering of Id (1923), Freud creative
Freud’s earlier comes to this relationship to us”
treatments. (66) conclusion by (140). (471)
understanding
Melancholia is that the ego is It may be that the
now regarded constituted distinction finally
as that which through the between
casts light on remains of mourning and
historical, abandoned melancholia does
collective, and object-cathexes. not hold, not only
personal losses (4) for the reasons
and is the that became
politically self- Butler observes apparent in Freud,
evident that melancholia but also because
theoretical term. is “precisely they are,
(66) what interiorizes inevitably,
the psyche, that experienced in a
Perhaps the is, makes it certain
best description possible to refer configuration of
of this object of to the psyche simultaneity and
contemplation through such succession. Many
in contemporary topographical of the essays here
discourse would tropes. (4) refer to the
be something sensuality of
akin to the In Black Sun, melancholia, to its
hybrid Julia Kristeva form of pleasure,
mournincholia. describes its mode of
(66) melancholia’s becoming, and
inexorable grief therefore reject its
A doubled form as the “signifier’s identification with
of melancholia flimsiness.” paralysis. But it
is deployed Rather than probably remains
throughout thinking about true that it is only
Loss: the one, a this flimsiness because we know
lingering as the its stasis that we
sadness and impossibility of can trace its
recursive representation— motion, and that
loitering in the as the signifier’s we want to. The
past; the other, inadequacy to rituals of mourning
active, express its lost are sites of
transformative, referent—might merriment;
and oriented we interpret it in Benjamin knew
toward future terms of an this as well, but as
possibilities. extended his text effectively
(67) flexibility, an shows, it is not
expanded always possible to
Although capacity for keep the dance
haunted by its representation? alive. (472)
depressive That is, can we
other, describe
melancholia is melancholia as
figured in the facilitating the
collection as work of
precisely that mourning by
which can creating
overcome its numerous
other, peculiarly disparate
painful form. bodies, places,
(67) and ideals
composing the
As framed by symbolic world?
the editors, (4)
“The politics of
mourning might
be described as
the creative
process
mediating a
hopeful or
hopeless
relationship
between loss
and history.”
(67)

For melancholia
in Freud’s
version of 1917
is the anti-
mediating: its
sickness to the
past is precisely
a recursive loop
of painful
attachment that
cannon
renounce, that
never
synthesizes,
that is
temporally
pathological for
its expanded
affective
duration without
end or change.
It does not
transform, and it
is not
transformative.
(67)
In place of the
“peculiar
painfulness: of
mourning, it is
now a peculiar
painlessness
that centers
post-Freudian
discourses of
loss: mourning
made
melancholia, or
mournincholia,
has been
dialecticized,
and it has been
anesthesized,
deprived of the
intensity of its
affective force.
(71)

“mourning” and
“melancholia”
have become
so
oversaturated, I
name that other
thing grief. Grief
will be the term
for that which
resists the
relational
dimension of
loss; the form
 for that suffering
of a general
economy in
which not
everything can
be made to
mean and
things escape
systemacity
without return,
labor
guarantees no
profit. As
peculiarly
painful
dimension of
loss, grief
resists
mediation and
ongoing
processual
struggle. It
takes a different
form altogether.
(71)

Grief “mourning” and

“melancholia”
have become
so
oversaturated, I
name that other
thing grief. Grief
will be the term
for that which
resists the
relational
dimension of
loss; the form
for that suffering
of a general
economy in
which not
everything can
be made to
mean and
things escape
systemacity
without return,
labor
guarantees no
profit. As
peculiarly
painful
dimension of
loss, grief
resists
mediation and
ongoing
processual
struggle. It
takes a different
form altogether.
(71)

Just as with
mourning and
melancholia,
treatments of
grief and
mourning
routinely blur
the distinction
between the
two terms. (71)

“grief” here
swears fidelity
to the dialectical
form of
“mourning”
described
earlier. (71)

This division of
labor between
“grief” and
“mourning” is an
old one, in
which grief
would be the
private passion
(feelings,
sentiments,
experiences)
and mourning
the public
manifestation of
that interior
state to the
outside world
(rituals,
customs,
shared beliefs).
In this usage,
grief involves
emotional,
cognitive, and
physical
responses to
loss centered
around affective
reactions such
as anger, rage,
anxiety, fear,
nausea,
hysteria,
numbness and
denial.
Mourning, by
contrast, is
often figured as
formalized or
ritualized
responses to
death: funerals,
eulogizing,
memorial
services, and
burial habits.
(72)

The first
definition of
mourning in its
current usage is
“to feel sorrow,
grief, or regret
(often with the
added notion of
expressing
one’s grief),”
tellingly
muddled for its
identification or
mourning with
grief and
subsequent
separation of
the two as a
quality and an
expressive
activity. (72)

To mourn is
always
mourning,
mourning is
definitively in
process, caught
in the linguistic
act after its
work has
begun. (72)

Grief, by
contrast, is a
hardship or
suffering, “hurt,
harm, mischief,
or injury”; it is a
wrong, a feeling
of displeasure,
even umbrage
(annoyance) or
offense. It is a
bodily injury, a
physical pain or
discomfort—
and all this
before its very
late definition of
“mental pain,
distress, or
sorrow. In mod.
[modern] use in
a more limited
sense: Deep or
violent sorrow,
caused by a
loss or trouble;
a keen or bitter
feeling of regret
for something
lost, remorse for
something
done, or sorrow
for mishap to
oneself or
others.” (72-73)

Grief is derived
from grever
(afflict, burden,
oppress), from
the Latin
gravare (to
cause grief,
make heavy)—
hence the
etymological
intimacy of grief
and gravity,
both from gravis
(weighty). The
sense of mental
pain and sorrow
dates from
about 1350.
The older sense
of weightiness
is one key to a
grief that has
gone missing in
contemporary
accounts of loss
and whose
remembering
points to the felt
experience of
heaviness, of
being weighted
down, of
pushing and
pressing, as on
one’s sternum
in sighing,
choking breaths
that do not fully
arrive. (73)

Grief is
different. Grief
has no
distance. Grief
comes in
waves,
paroxysms,
sudden
apprehensions
that weaken the
knees and blind
the eyes and
obliterate the
dailiness of
life… (73)

Grief’s
passivity, as
contrasted with
mourning’s
demanded
attentiveness,
evokes not an
event and its
unknotting but
an event and,
then, after,
another,
different event.
(74)