The Ravages of Enforced Disappearance: A Psychoanalytic Perspective of Traumatic Events and Encrypted Mourning

Juan Jaime de la Fuente Herrera, Hada Soria-Escalante

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the context of violence and enforced disappearance in Mexico, the concept of mourning is recontextualized from a psychoanalytic perspective. Two themes of the psychoanalytic theory of mourning are considered: 1) the impossibility to confirm the death of the missing person and 2) the availability and purpose of symbolic resources (rites, community activities). The private and public aspects of mourning are reviewed in relation to the afflictions of the relatives of the missing. Without a body to mourn, the rites that are performed around the disappeared have a different function than funeral rites. Nuanced by repetition, these rites attempt to work through the traumatic loss. The role of search groups in working through the pain of loss is also explored. The notions of intrapsychic crypt and endocryptic identification are reviewed, to better understand the encrypted mourning -the particular state of prolonged grief- endured by the relatives of the disappeared.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)194-212
Number of pages19
JournalOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying
Volume87
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2023

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© The Author(s) 2021.

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