The Wound of Mortality: Fear, Denial, and Acceptance of Death

by Salman Akhtar professor of psychiatry, (Editor), Ira Brenner (Contribution by), Stanley J. Coen (Contribution by), Calvin A. Colarusso MD (Contribution by), Hossein M. Etezady (Contribution by)

Overview

Death is a much avoided topic. Literature on mourning exists, but it focuses chiefly upon the death of others. The inevitable psychic impact of one's own mortality is not optimally covered either in this literature on mourning or elsewhere in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The Wound of Mortality brings together contributions from distinguished psychoanalysts to fill this gap by addressing the issue of death in a comprehensive manner. Among questions the contributors raise and seek to answer are: Do children understand the idea of death? How is adolescent bravado related to deeper anxieties about death? Is it normal and even psychologically healthy to think about one's own death during middle age? Does culture-at-large play a role in how individuals conceptualize the role of death in human life? Is death "apart" from or "a part" of life? Enhanced understanding of such matters will help mental health clinicians treat patients struggling with death-related concerns with greater empathy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765706997
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	01/22/2010
Series:	Margaret S. Mahler
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Salman Akhtar is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Chapter 1 Freud's Todesangst and Ghalib's Ishrat-e-Qatra: Two Perspectives on Death Salman Akhtar 1

Chapter 2 What Happens When You Die: Three-to-Four-Year-Olds Chatting about Death Leon Hoffman Eileen Johnson Michelle Foster Josephine Wright 21

Chapter 3 Children's Understanding of Death Henri Parens 37

Chapter 4 Symbolic Death, East and West: Metaphors in Three Child Case Studies Jaswant Guzder 51

Chapter 5 It Is Not Over When It's Over: Reflections on Death and Mourning Albert Kaplan 71

Chapter 6 Fear of Death: Analyst and Patient in the Same Boat Ilany Kogan 79

Chapter 7 The Dead Self Must Be Reborn Stanley J. Coen 97

Chapter 8 Living to Die and Dying to Live: Normal and Pathological Considerations of Death Anxiety Calvin A. Colarusso 107

Chapter 9 Facing Death: Intrapsychic Conflict and Intergenerational Passage Ruth Garfield 125

Chapter 10 Eastern Intersubjectivity: Relational Homes for Frailty and Death Tooraj Moradi 135

Chapter 11 Demise and Illusion M. Hossein Etezady 155

Chapter 12 Is That All There Is? A Concluding Commentary on Psychoanalysis and Death Ira Brenner 171

References 187

Index 199

About the Editor and Contributors 205

Editorial Reviews

If you believe as I do that psychoanalysts have underestimated the importance of the conscious and cultural meanings of mortality by emphasizing its unconscious significances alone, this book restores the appropriate balance that is not to be missed. As a reward, the reader's empathic sensitivity will be broadened and interpretations of all sorts of anxieties, fantasies, and concerns about death will be enriched.

David M. Sachs

This anthology is edited by Salman Akhtar, who is now well on his way to becoming the most prolific author in psychoanalytic history. Akhtar's sterling introduction, together with twelve subsequent essays by psychoanalysts, offers a vast examination of death, ranging from Freudian to post-Freudian commentary, from the theoretical to the clinical, from the cultural to the intrapsychic, from the transferential to the countertransferential, and from the developmental to the defensive. Recalling E.M. Forster's remark that physical death destroys us whereas the thought of death may save us, readers of this book might also experience the wound of mortality as losing some of its sting.

Patrick Mahony

This anthology is edited by Salman Akhtar, who is now well on his way to becoming the most prolific author in psychoanalytic history. Akhtar's sterling introduction, together with twelve subsequent essays by psychoanalysts, offers a vast examination of death, ranging from Freudian to post-Freudian commentary, from the theoretical to the clinical, from the cultural to the intrapsychic, from the transferential to the countertransferential, and from the developmental to the defensive. Recalling E.M. Forster's remark that physical death destroys us whereas the thought of death may save us, readers of this book might also experience the wound of mortality as losing some of its sting.--Patrick Mahony, PhD, professor emeritus, University of Montreal; training and supervising analyst, Canadian Psychoanalytic Society

If you believe as I do that psychoanalysts have underestimated the importance of the conscious and cultural meanings of mortality by emphasizing its unconscious significances alone, this book restores the appropriate balance that is not to be missed. As a reward, the reader's empathic sensitivity will be broadened and interpretations of all sorts of anxieties, fantasies, and concerns about death will be enriched.--David M. Sachs, MD, training and supervising analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

From the Publisher