Psychoanalysis and Mourning—Two Distinct Views: Commentary on Papers by Martin Stephen Frommer and Mary Sussillo

This commentary highlights the differences between Frommer's and Sussillo's views on what might be done in the clinical situation to promote beneficial mourning. Sussillo is concerned with maintaining an intrapsychic tie to the deceased parent of an adolescent to lessen the ravages of loss. Her advice to analysts is to promote that internal connection through specific questioning about the lost parent and encouraging the patient to directly address the deceased other. Frommer's focus is on how best to facilitate an ongoing psychic connection to mortality through a shared experience of loss with the analyst. His therapeutic goal is the intensification and appreciation of the now as a route to more fulfillment in living. Glennon asks Sussillo what might be different in her conceptualizations if the lost parental relationship had been destructive instead of growth enhancing. Glennon also is concerned about the possibility of a renewed experience of loss being the ultimate outcome of maintaining an intrapsychic tie. Her concern regarding Frommer's conceptualizations has to do with possible psychic difficulties involved in keeping grief in the forefront of one's mind.