The loss of a loved one, with whom an essential part of the mental functioning was organized, compels the mind to work against the disruption caused by the loss. The psyche has three options: grief, depression or nostalgia.

Freud describes mourning as part of a work of detachment from the object. We think that in depression, on the contrary, every kind of detachment is refused; the work of depression is a work that seeks instead to maintain a broken link at all costs.