Psychoanalysis.  2023 Oct;34(4):61-67. 10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.4.61.

Psychoanalytic Perspectives of the Development of an Adolescent Through Loss and Mourning in a Novel, ‘The Neverending Story’

• Kim B
• Bahn GH

• KMID: 2547347
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.4.61

Abstract

A passage through adolescence can be considered to be repleted with losses. Particularly, an actual loss of a libidinally invested object during this period can curb adolescent development. In light of this perspective, this article is aimed at providing understandings of the novel ‘The Neverending Story,’ a story of which is about an early teen experiencing a loss of his mother and tormented aftermath, as well as a journey to his fantasy world for resuming once-stalled development. In addition, the exploration of his journey provides opportunities for understandings of a youngster’s defenses against layers of pain ascribed to the loss. His participation in this journey, in turn, sheds light on how to step forward developmentally and to reinvest in his life, when the actual loss of a love object transpires in an adolescent during childhood. Eventually, we can see our analysis of the novel leads to implications of this bereaved boy’s journey, which suggests that the work of mourning following the real loss of an emotionally-attached object demands the transformation of an internal relationship with an object as well as the creation of space for libidinally reinvesting a new object.

Keyword

Loss; Mourning; Development; Growth; Adolescent