Bereavement: Personal Experiences and Clinical Reflections

Editor : Salman Akhtar, Editor : Gurmeet S. Kanwal

Bereavement: Personal Experiences and Clinical Reflections

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This is a book about death, loss, grief and mourning, but with an unusual twist. It is different in that it explores specific kinds of deaths encountered within families and households, rather than general concepts of mourning. It is even more unusual because here six psychoanalysts reveal how they have suffered, processed, and survived losses in their own lives; at the same time bringing clinical and theoretical perspectives of various psychoanalytic schools to bear on their own, as well as others’, experiences.

The narratives in this book use the power of subjective experience, as described by psychoanalysts themselves, to understand, contextualize, and extend existing clinical approaches. Each chapter addresses the death of a different loved one. The losses discussed include death of a mother, death of a father, death of a sibling, death of a spouse, death of a child, and death of a pet (recognizing the deep significance of pets in human households). These accounts are bookended by a chapter reviewing the spectrum of emotional reactions to death and current ideas of grief and mourning, and a chapter weaving together the many narratives as well as exploring some additional situations and ideas.

Reviews and Endorsements

‘Salman Akhtar and Gurmeet S. Kanwal offer us a superbly edited volume on bereavement. Its contributors share with the reader their intimate, painful, and profound experiences as they mourn the death of a child, parent, sibling, spouse, or pet. Together, they offer us many new insights, including that “libido” is never completely detached from any relationship. Mental health professionals and lay people alike will benefit from this deep exploration of the timeless and universal experience of mourning.’
––Axel Hoffer, MD, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute

‘Reading this book, I felt accompanied in my own grief. The contributors, all exceptionally thoughtful and scholarly clinicians, illuminate their various losses withselected theoretical constructs, combined with uncommon clarity and emotional generosity. Their heartfelt language invites the reader into an intimate conversation that is moving, unforgettable, and ultimately sustaining. A must-read for those engaged in the “helping” professions and anyone wanting to better understand the role loss plays in our lives.’
––Sandra Buechler, PhD, William Alanson White Institute, New York

About the Editor(s)

Salman Akhtar, MD, is professor of psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. His more than 450 publications include twenty-three solo authored books – Broken Structures (1992), Quest for Answers (1995), Inner Torment (1999), Immigration and Identity (1999), New Clinical Realms (2003), Objects of Our Desire (2005), Regarding Others (2007), Turning Points in Dynamic Psychotherapy (2009), The Damaged Core (2009), Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009), Immigration and Acculturation (2011), Matters of Life and Death (2011), Psychoanalytic Listening (2013), Good Stuff (2013), Sources of Suffering (2014), No Holds Barred (2016), A Web of Sorrow (2017), Mind, Culture, and Global Unrest (2018), Silent Virtues (2019), Tales of Transformation (2022), In Leaps and Bounds (2022), and In Short (2024) – as well as sixty-nine edited or coedited volumes in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar has delivered many prestigious addresses and lectures including, most significantly, the inaugural address at the first IPA-Asia Congress in Beijing, China (2010). Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Best Paper of the Year Award (1995), the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians’ Sigmund Freud Award (2000), the American College of Psychoanalysts’ Laughlin Award (2003), the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Edith Sabshin Award (2000), Columbia University’s Robert Liebert Award for Distinguished Contributions to Applied Psychoanalysis (2004), the American Psychiatric Association’s Kun Po Soo Award (2004), the Irma Bland Award for being the Outstanding Teacher of Psychiatric Residents in the country (2005), and the Nancy Roeske Award (2012). He received the Sigourney Award (2013), which is the most prestigious honor in the field of psychoanalysis. Dr. Akhtar is an internationally sought speaker and teacher, and his books have been translated in many languages, including German, Turkish, and Romanian. His interests are wide and he has served as the film review editor for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and is currently serving as the book review editor for the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. He has published eighteen collections of poetry and serves as a scholar-in-residence at the Inter-Act Theatre Company in Philadelphia. His Selected Papers (Vols I–X) were recently published and released at a festive event held at the Freud House & Museum in London.

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Gurmeet S. Kanwal, MD, is clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, where he teaches and supervises residents at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. He is supervising psychoanalyst and a member of the teaching faculty at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Psychoanalysis, and past president of the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society. He is on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Discourse. His recent papers have appeared in Psychoanalytic Review and Neuropsychoanalysis. He has also blogged for the Psychoanalysis 3.0/Psychology Today website, and lectured in New Delhi, India, on interpersonal psychoanalysis. His areas of interest include culture, trauma, and the interface of neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Currently he is in full time private practice in New York City.

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