A Time to Mourn

In what is often called her most important book, Verena Kast examines the role of mourning in the therapeutic process. Working as a psychotherapist, Frau Kast has often observed depressive illnesses caused by painful losses, which have not been adequately mourned. Traditionally, mourning has not been a subject of psychologists’ attention. Frau Kast uses dreams to illustrate the stages of mourning and shows systematically how the unconscious stimulates us to encounter our grief. Mourning marks an end but it also fosters personal growth. It is a time of renewal, a time for incubation, for introspection, for going into oneself to gather strength, as a seed goes deep into the earth to find the resources for striving toward the light.