Psychoanalysis.  2023 Oct;34(4):68-74. 10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.4.68.

Psychoanalytic Understanding of Mourning in the Movie 『The Father』

• Kim S
• An E
• Yu J

• KMID: 2547348
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18529/psychoanal.2023.34.4.68

Abstract

Mourning has been an important theme in the history of psychoanalysis. Life is interrupted by a series of losses and mourning. This paper attempts a psychoanalytic analysis of various mourning responses to losses in the film “The Father,” which details the inner life of a character who loses his memory due to dementia and the characters facing their own or others’ aging and death. The following are the main findings of this study: 1) Anne’s mourning over her separation from her father Anthony can be under-stood as aggressive phantasies and ambivalence; 2) Anthony’s mourning over his separation from Anne shows the process of moving from a paranoid-schizoid position to a depressive position; 3) Anthony’s mourning over his aging and death shows a nar-cissistic collapse; and 4) Anthony’s mourning over Lucy’s death is an example of an unmourned loss. There are also therapeutic implications for therapists working with patients in the mourning stage.

Keyword

Mourning; Loss; Aggressive phantasies; Paranoid-schizoid position; Narcissistic collapse