The return of the erased: memory and forgetfulness in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004).

Full Abstract

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is a film about remembering and forgetting loss. This essay reads the film as an examination of mourning and melancholia, which are distinct ways of remembering and forgetting both a love object and its loss. Freud distinguished mourning from its pathological counterpart, melancholia, claiming that there is a normal way to grieve, mourning, and its degeneration into an abnormal pattern, melancholia. The author aims to make two points:
firstly, that both processes are characterized by ambivalence and identification and therefore have some commonalities; secondly, that there is a difference between the two processes that is less apparent than the ones discussed by Freud. This is the difference between remembering a good and a bad object. Following Klein the author argues that this is a crucial qualitative difference between mourning and melancholia. She concludes that a central issue in grieving is not forgetting but remembering well.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Carel, Havi (H);

Affiliation: Languages and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, St Matthias Campus, Oldbury Court Road, Bristol, BS16 2JP, UK. havi.carel(-atsign-)uwe.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The International journal of psycho-analysis (Int J Psychoanal), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Aug; vol 88 (issue Pt 4) : pp 1071-82

Dates: Created 2007/08/07; Completed 2007/09/11; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 17681907, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Bereavement
Depressive Disorder - psychology
Humans
Motion Pictures as Topic

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.