The incentive for this thought-provoking volume on loss—as Arturo Varchevker, its co-editor, explains in his introduction—is that “mourning, depression, and narcissism constitute the basic fabric of psychoanalytic theorizing” (p. xiii). For this purpose, he has chosen two early, influential papers by Freud, “On Narcissism: An Introduction”1 and “Mourning and Melancholia,”2 for contributors to discuss using clinical illustrations. The twelve contributors, specialists in working with different age groups, were chosen from both Freudian and Kleinian camps.

Is it too speculative to suggest that another motive in choosing these particular contributors was to find common ground among them? Since all the authors address the task with civility, respect, and generosity, Varchevker and co-editor Eileen McGinley have succeeded in this secondary goal as well.