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Within the broadly defined goal of investigating the social origins of psychoanalysis, Peter Homans' book, The Ability to Mourn: Disillusionment and the Social Origins of Psychoanalysis, undertakes a series of strikingly original and thought-provoking explorations into the history of the psychoanalytic movement, its place in the traditions of Western culture, and its possible role in defining a more satisfactory relationship to modernity. In addition to providing a sociological study of one of the most influential movements of our time, the book also attempts to put forward a new psychoanalytic theory of culture capable of overcoming the limitations of Freud' cultural theories. It is rare indeed that a scholarly work sets for itself such ambitious goals, and in grappling with them the book yields a wealth of valuable insights.
The book is divided into three parts, the first two of which are devoted primarily to the origins and early development of psychoanalysis while the third takes up the contemporary cultural significance of psychoanalysis and Homans' own theory of culture. The underlying thesis of the first two parts of the book is that psychoanalysis arose from a centuries-long process of mourning dating as far back as the 14th century. The term usually employed to describe this process is secularization, but the author argues that the concept of mourning is more useful in that it allows him to get at the personal psychodynamic forces involved in the process, whereas the concept of secularization does not. As Homans notes (p. 4), in “Mourning and Melancholia” Freud indicated that mourning is an appropriate response not just to the loss of a loved person, but also to “the loss of some abstraction which has taken the place of one, such as one' country, liberty, an ideal and so on.” Abstractions