The presentation examines the differences and similarities between mourning as this occurs after the loss of a single individual under civilized conditions, and mourning after multiple losses under traumatic conditions. After a brief review of Freud’s original conceptualization of mourning and its later modifications, the paper discusses the relationship between creativity and mourning and suggests that mourning after multiple losses under traumatic conditions is delayed. Belated mourning is aided by memorial sites, memorial art and literature by facilitating the experience of deeply felt grief. Such “memorial spaces” are responsive to a deeply felt need by survivors of major disasters to articulate that which they experience as unspeakable and unsharable.
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