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ATT HA OCH INTE LÄNGRE HA. FEM PSYKOANALYTIKER OM FÖRLUST OCH MISSLYCKANDE. (TO HAVE AND NO LONGER HAVE. FIVE PSYCHOANALYSTS ON LOSS AND FAILURE). By Camitz, H. (ed.) Stockholm: Mareld/Svenska Psykoanalytiska Sällskapet, 2003.
This collection of papers about loss and failure with contributions from Hans Camitz, Ludvig Igra, Arne Jemstedt, Lena Teurnell and Bengt Warren is a seemingly moderate book of less than 100 pages. However, it succeeds in creating a thrilling composition around these two central existential themes belonging to the conditions of human life.
Therefore, much of what is written here has, in different ways, been said before, but the themes invoked are such that they can never be solved or answered, touching upon the issues of evil, fate and reconciliation. The enigma darkens even more when we are aware of the fact that this book ends with Igra's paper on “Vitalisation through misfortune and failure”, which confronts us with the painful insight of the great loss his sudden and premature death has been for all of us.
The book starts out with an essay which constitutes an introduction and presentation of the theme, and gives an explanation as to why the title so closely resembles that of the famous novel by Hemingway. Camitz sympathetically starts out from the materialistic viewpoint, but soon introduces the more psychological and existential aspects as the train of thought fans out and then even touches upon quasispiritual Buddhistic formulations. Thus, we can see that a mere materialistic or scientific language is of little help when we are confronted with the ultimate issues of life. And this gives a fine relief to the work as a whole.
Arne Jemsted's “Förlust, sorg och omsorg” (Loss, mourning and care) treats its topic in a somewhat more conventional manner, with the help of neo-Kleinian theory and clinical material, although not very explicitly so, due to the fact that the paper emerges from an official lecture and also due to the confidential conside