‘Who is the third who walks always beside you?’ On the death of a psychoanalyst

Abstract

In this study, we present a qualitative, phenomenologically oriented case study of what it was like for one of the authors to lose her psychoanalyst to cancer. Drawing on work by Finlay and Evans, the study incorporates a descriptive, reflective and engaged mode of empirical inquiry that draws on both authors’ feelings and responses during the research cycle in order to understand and co-construct the meaning and significance of the death of a psychoanalyst. Reasons for choosing our research methodology are discussed in the introduction, followed by a literature review. The subsequent phenomenological analysis, incorporating verbatim quotes from Diana’s account of her analyst’s illness and death, illustrates her embodied sense of connection with him, the impossibility of sharing her feelings of shock and loss with family and friends and the long-lasting sense of isolation that ensued. Diana’s experiences are discussed in the light of relational perspectives on loss and mourning. Finally, the nature of the relationship established between the two authors in carrying out the study is examined as a significant component of the study as well as a crucial source of information.

Keywords:

• death
• inter-subjectivity
• loss
• phenomenological
• psychoanalyst
• qualitative research
• relational