The Dying Patient in Psychotherapy: Desire, Dreams and Individuation

Preface.- Contents.- List of Dreams.- Acknowledgements.- Definition of Terms.- Introduction.- PART ONE: THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP Psychotherapy with the Dying Patient.- Intimacy Revealed: Establishing a Therapeutic Relationship.- The House and Boarding School: Intimacy and Exile.- PART TWO: DREAMS AND THE EROTIC TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTERTRANSFERENCE Dreams.- Dreams and Diagnosis.- Dreams and the Erotic Transference.- The Erotic Transference and Countertransference.- Sexual Attraction and Erotic Violence: Men Who Leave Too Soon Revisited.- The Inner World Parents: The Paternal Function and the Maternal Realm.- Talking about Love, Sex and Death.- PART THREE: MOURNING AND MOVING Boundaries and the Bereavement of Dying.- Envy and Stasis.- The Link Between Psychotherapy and Cancer.- The Problem of Ending When the End is Death.- PART FOUR: THE FINAL PHASE Breakdown, Boundaries and Hospital.- The Hospice and Medication.- Home.- Conclusions: Supervision, Countertransference Bereavement and Research Questions.- Bibliography.- Index.

Joy Schaverien

'This...excellent book...combines in a unique way theoretical issues, clinical insights, analytic technique, therapeutic skills in the context of a most moving and human story of life, love and death. This book is the finest example of Joy Schaverien's characteristic style of writing which includes all these facets of an analytical encounter in a touching and most readable way.' - Professor Renos Papadopoulos, Jungian Psychoanalyst, University of Essex and the Tavistock Clinic'A detailed account of a successful psychoanalysis with a dying patient... Because death is an extreme event that brings all of life into focus, Dr Schaverien's examples of transference and dream interpretations reach far beyond the case she recounts. I recommend this book to any psychotherapist who wants to understand the therapeutic uses of the erotic transference.' - Polly Young-Eisendrath, PhD, author of Women and Desire, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Jung'The importance of this book lies in bringing work with the dying into the mainstream of our work...This humane and careful text is a tribute to the courage of both Schaverien and [the client] and a gift for the reader.' - Jeremy Weinstein, BACP-registered trainer, UKCP Gestalt psychotherapist, Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal'...Joy Schaverien has risked having her heart and perhaps her soul also, as well as her technique and intellect, open for scrutiny in a way that is both brave and inspiring...One of the most instructive aspects of this book is that it enables the reader to enter into a detailed account of the management of an intense, at times merged, involvement with a patient, whilst being provided with intermittent glimpses of how the analyst's mind is working, how she is building her frame, and patroling her/their boundaries...The book is well structured. Its clear chapter headings and sub-headings, as well as a chronological list of the patient's dreams, are containing and form a useful reference guide.' - Hilary