When the Patient Loses His/Her Analyst

Five years ago I carried out bibliographical research on the subject of the analyst's serious illness and death. I had recently lost a number of colleagues, one after the other, some of them getting on in years, while others were still young. They had been struck by invalidating illnesses, leading to severe consequences for themselves as well as their families and their patients. I had felt the need to address the issue from the perspective of the patients who find themselves facing our illness, invalidity and even death. It is right, I felt, to prepare oneself, reflect, gather the experiences of other colleagues, daydream and plan, in the hope of being better able to help both patients and ourselves should we find ourselves in danger of dying or need to help a colleague in such circumstances. Reflect, think and then… in the end «forget» again, at least until destiny intervenes, one way or another, forcing us to face the issue.

This is what I thought, knowing that our possibility of living is based on that great agency which is denial, the ability to forget that from one minute to the next we may lose our health, die or lose the people dearest to us.

Precisely! After having patiently searched for and read numerous articles (the research went on for months!) and having written a short paper, I put it all aside and did nothing more. I forgot. Then, two years ago, a colleague presented a [great,] courageous paper at the Milanese Center of Psychoanalysis on the illness of an analyst and forced me to shake off my lethargy. In addition to the invaluable personal experience, the paper (Stuflesser, 2007) cites almost all the bibliography that I had collected, as well as other material. So I decided to update my bibliographical knowledge and to focus my attention particularly on the problems of patients losing their analyst. It has been a difficult task, given the topic, but gratifying at the same time, as the most recent literature includes extremely interesting articles cent