When a Patient Dies

Reflections On Mortality: A Patient Faces Death

“…Mourning is easier to experience when one can imagine a future—other springs that will come, new loves or friends or lives to invest in—but when people are dying, they have to let go of that imagined future time. Our own age also affects us, as do our responses to a patient facing death (Houlding 2013). As we age, it is hard to accept that there may not be future loves, future friends; no future analytic children or new lives to replace those we have lost.…”

Mortality, Integrity, and Psychoanalysis (Who Are You to Me? Who Am I to You?)

“…There are two people in the consulting room, and the therapist isn't the only one who can die-a truism. Sybil Houlding (2013), in a moving essay, tells about her patient Julie dying, and her own struggle to grieve. (The essay in fact is about Houlding's loss of three patients, all within five years.)…”