Repressed Affect and Memory Reactive to Grief: A Case Fragment

Abstract

Reactive to a broken love affair and the death of a grandfather, with whom she had had a very close and unique lifelong relationship, a 20-year-old woman developed a depression for which she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. A process of intensive crisis therapy, focusing on grief work, was attempted in order to break through the blockages to other therapeutic procedures. The direct, active, and even forceful methods sought to lead her into the expression of the several emotions which one might be expected to feel and express at a time of severe loss of love object. The second step in this therapeutic movement, which assumed the dynamic priority of the loss of the grandfather, was the exploration of her total relationship with him in order to release external ties, reaffirm her own self as a worthwhile person, and rekindle early internalized good objects. The preparation for the termination of the six-session course of crisis therapy included the interpretation of the meaning of the present relationship between patient and therapist and the need to prepare for this loss in open and direct encounter. Abrupt withdrawal of the patient from the hospital following the fifth session prevented completion of this initial interventive procedure.