Visions of the dead: imagination and mourning

Contemporary research recognizes the existence of an ongoing attachment between the mourner and the deceased. This research tends to focus on the subjective aspects of the attachment--the mourner's memory and emotions. A complementary perspective is offered by archetypal psychology, which considers the deceased to exist outside the mourner's subjectivity as an autonomous image. This approach is illustrated by an exemplary case: a woman named Verda who experienced the death of her twin sister,Vera.Their account suggests that Verda's mourning derives from her encounters with Vera's continuing imaginal presence.