Assignment task: The Inability to Mourn is a sociological study that relies on psychoanalysis. In their seminal study, the Mitscherlichs evaluated West Germany's psychological development after the Third Reich on a collective level. Read to page 10 from The Inability to Mourn carefully, as it is a difficult text.
Then explain what it is that the Germans cannot "mourn" (mourning is defined as the psychological process of coping with a loss-something that the nation collectively failed to do). Why couldn't they mourn "it"?