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Normal mourning is divided into two stages: the initial stage and the work of mourning. The initial stage is acutely painful and leads to the recognition that the death has occurred. The slower work of mourning allows the mourner to adjust his or her self and world view to the actuality of the loss. Strongly ambivalent feelings toward the dead person predispose to problems in the mourning work, such as reactive depression and pathological mourning. In normal mourning the mourner makes partial identifications with the lost loved one. In reactive depression the identifications are total, with much aggression directed against the self. In pathological mourning a walled-off, isolated introject forms within the self-representation. This allows the dead loved one to be experienced as still living, often as being alive within the mourner. Via this ego split the mourner can feel that the dead person is both alive and dead and can be hopeful about seeing the loved one again, while being aware of the absurdity of this. The use of certain mementos—"linking objects"—allows the blocked mourner to feel the loved one is present. Conversely, removal of the linking object can represent a killing of the dead person. This controlling mode of dealing with ambivalent feelings can protect against depression and suicide. "Regrief therapy" involves alerting the patient to the existence of the introject and the ambivalence toward it. Analysis of the ambivalent and controlling meanings of the linking object is crucial to allowing the mourning to resume.