Treating Mourning—Knowing Loss

Abstract

The unexpected news of the death of a patient I had been working with plunged me into a new reality. I felt suddenly alone, a residue of the analytic field we had created together. I found myself offended by the death: “We were intimately engaged with each other!” Grief and shock disoriented and crazed me.

Keywords:

• patient
• death
• loss
• paradox
• ambiguity
• mourning

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karol Marshall

Karol Marshall, Ph.D., ABPP is Faculty, Co-Founder, and Past President Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis; and Adjunct Faculty, Department of Psychology, University of Washington.