The therapeutic mobilization of mourning in a young child

The debate over whether children have the capacity to engage in a mourning process akin to the process experienced by adults has had a spirited history in the psychoanalytic literature. Wolfenstein (1966) represents the position that children are not structurally equipped to mourn, while Erna Furman (1974) and others argue that they are. The authors contend that children are capable of mourning, provided that the emotional surround facilitates the mourning process. All too often, a variety of situational and psychological factors act to inhibit or preclude the unfolding of a mourning process in children. The therapeutic situation can provide the conditions for the process of mourning to be mobilized, even in very young children. To illustrate this contention, the authors summarize the treatment of a young girl that began before she was 4 years old.