Reality Testing: Love and Loss

Mourning and Love as Revelation. How does mourning reveal ourselves and our lost love to us? This lecture is the first of two that address: Ego as precipitate of identifications, Kohut's self-psychology; Freud's view of mourning; Melancholia; Freud’s diagnostic use of mourning - reality testing, identification, intorjection; Contextualising Frued's writing on mourning - usefulness of ego-instincts; An extended sense of self  & importance of others in the formation of feeling - extended sense of self, interpersonal impact on emotion experience (Bollas's unthought known), healthy and pathological interconnectedness; Implications of this: for wellbeing, self-harm, mourning and theoretically; How to work with this cross-culturally. Contact Email: [email protected] Lecturer: Associate Professor Doris McIlwain. Theme song creator: Rose Mackenzie-Peterson. Logo creator: Campbell Henderson. https://www.campbellhenderson.com/artworkThanks to Dr. Andrew Geeves and Professor John Sutton for all their hard work. Sadly A/Prof. Doris McIlwain, the course creator, died of cancer in 2015. This podcast is created by her family and friends, with hopes that her curiosity, joy and intellectual playfulness will keep inspiring and informing those who listen.