On Mourning, Melancholia, and War.

The author reviews the status of mourning as a pillar of healthy adjustment and relates this individual capacity to the context of the large group or society. This introduces the concept of social melancholia, a society that has foreclosed on mourning and interprets its losses and disillusionments through the lens of conspiracy and betrayal. This "negative of mourning," its effacement from consciousness and outlawing in the national discourse, is discussed in terms of its corrosive effects, polarizing and bringing the society closer to the mentality of war. Using Russia and Rwanda as examples, the author illustrates how societies which foreclose on mourning can regress into social melancholia while trying to reclaim some illusive lost destiny or ideal. The capacity to mourn is the pathway to social justice, whereas the negative of mourning instills paranoia and the ongoing thirst for vengeance, which is a formula for interminable conflict and even war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]