This book comprises a selection of papers initially presented as a series of lectures organized by the Psychoanalytic Forum of the British Psychoanalytical Society. The aim of these lectures was to revisit Freud's key papers On Narcissism (1914) and Mourning and Melancholia (1917), and to look at how they are used in today's thinking about the different stages of life. The contributions, by well known clinicians and theoreticians in their respective fields, capture certain important themes which we are worthwhile to put together, having in mind two main incentives: first, the contributors consider that mourning, depression and narcissism constitute the basic fabric of psychoanalytic theorizing. Secondly, the centrality of these concepts not only illustrates a particular way of understanding mental functioning, but by locating them at different stages of the individual development, offers a wider, more effective and at times different perspective. Contributors include: Anne Alvarez; Maria Rhode; Caroline Polmear; Margot Waddell; Denis Flynn and Helga Skogstad; Eileen McGinley; Stefano Bolognini; Sally Weintrobe; Arturo Varchevker; Ken Robinson; Margaret and Michael Rustin