This article illustrates by means of a case study how the clinical picture of established pathological mourning may underly an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and a false self functioning. The theories of Freud, Klein and Volkan on pathological mourning are reviewed. In the course of the discussion some reflections on shifts in the countertransference, the unlocking of frozen objects and the role of introjection in an Oedipal struggle are presented.