Mourning, Regeneration, and the Psychic Future: A Discussion of Levine’s “A Mutual Survival of Destructiveness and Its Creative Potential for Agency and Desire”

Abstract

Lauren Levine’s paper illustrates how she straddled the lines between helping her patient to grieve his substantial loss and exploring new psychic possibilities. As she discusses the transformation of traumatic loss into developing capacities for mourning and regeneration, she also examines the analyst’s limits that are directly and indirectly expressed to the patient. This discussion examines the intrinsic relationship in analytic work between grieving, the depressive position, and psychic change.

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Notes on contributors

Steven H. Cooper

Steven H. Cooper, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School; Training and Supervising Analyst, The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; and Joint Chief Editor Emeritus, Psychoanalytic Dialogues.