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This article is doubtless familiar to many psychoanalysts from its original publication in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis in 1966. A description of mourning processes from literature, as well as scientific writings, is followed by a brief discussion of introjection and identification in relation to object loss. Other components of mourning reactions, such as anger, relief, anxiety, helplessness, and somatic symptoms are listed. Siggins describes pathological mourning reactions and closes with a discussion of mourning at various stages of life.
Dr. Edith Jacobson in her discussion takes exception to certain of Dr. Siggins' points, particularly emphasizing the lack of clarity in the summary of identification and introjection in normal and pathological mourning. Dr. C. Murray Parkes calls attention to Dr. Bowlby's contributions, which incorporate some recent work in the field of ethology, and corrects what he feels is Dr. Siggins' misunderstanding of Klein's and Bowlby's views on mourning in childhood. A valuable classification of the literature on mourning is appended by Dr. Siggins.