‘Mourning is commonly the reaction to the loss of a beloved person or an abstraction taking the place of the person, such as fatherland, freedom, an ideal and so on.’
Sigmund Freud, On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia, p. 201.
‘The darkly obvious looms close by, encompassing everything. It is huge, your bereavement. It is consuming, protecting. Loss has cast you utterly into shadow. They all tiptoe around the tragedy. They tiptoe around you. After losing him, so violently and suddenly, your vagary, your absence, must be understandable. You are heart-broken. You are recovering. You are letting go.’
Sarah Hall, How to Paint a Dead Man, pp. 103-4
‘We tend to repeat things when we remain trapped in them.’
Darian Leader, The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression, p. 30
‘It was even argued by some post-Freudians that a mourning would only truly be over when the mourner could acknowledge their delight at the death of the one they loved.’
Leader, The New Black, p. 48
Treacle Heart 