The author presents four analysed cases in which the reaction to the oss of a beloved person was a complete absence of the manifestations of mourning. Since the death of a love object produces reactive expression of feeling in the normal course of events the omission of such a reactive response is to be considered as much a variation from the normal as is excess in time or intensity of mourning. Grief not manifested in the recognized manner will be found expressed to the full in some other fashion which will be continued until mourning is somehow carried to completion. The absence of mourning may be the result of an effort to defend the weak ego by excluding a grief that is unendurable. It may come about by a submission to other, opposed, claims on the ego, which succeed in excluding