Dead Loss
Freud and the Aesthetics of Mourning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4914339 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Waller (0000-0003-3994-3914, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 214-234 |
| Publication date | 2024-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Paragraph (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-8334 • E-ISSN: 1750-0176 |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3366/para.2024.0463 |
| OpenAlex | W4400040548 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
This article rereads the aporia in Freud's theory of mourning as a problem for representation and aesthetics. Drawing a parallel with Kant's account of the disinterested nature of aesthetic judgement, I argue that the mourner's stubborn willingness to persist in the reproduction of images of the lost object, in spite of their conscious knowledge of the irreversibility of the loss, wrests a minimal zone of autonomy from the sphere of practical interests. In dialogue with Adorno and Laplanche, I conclude by arguing that Freud's inability to adequately explain the problem of mourning is less a shortcoming of his theory of libidinal economy than it is proof of the enigmaticalness of mourning itself
Aesthetics · Art · Death drive · Psychoanalysis · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |