This paper is an overview and condensed synopsis of some selected previous publications that have taken as their focus the problematics of mourning on both the personal (intraspychic and relational) levels as well as on the level of the collective at decisive historical moments. If takes as a framework for this investigation the concepts of idol and of icon as ways to exemplify modes of mourning. Mourning through the idol becomes problematic for the transformations of the inner economy of loss, while mourning through the icon is facilitative of psychic change. In this context, themes that are examined include: the parental loss of a child; the motif of the face; the failure to mourn the events of 9/11; religious fundamentalism; shame and violence; and dreaming as a processing system for unthinkable loss.
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