Episode 8: When A Patient Dies - Funerals And Feelings

<p>In this episode, <a href="https://andrewgeeves.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Andrew</a> deals with the poignancy of the premature death of his patient. His presenting problem in the supervision is whether or not he should go to the funeral. While this is indeed a dilemma to be reckoned with, as the session unfolds it becomes clear that there are many other issues and feelings that are masked by <a href="https://andrewgeeves.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Andrew</a>’s focus on the issue of the funeral.  </p><p><br></p><p>One of the issues <a href="https://andrewgeeves.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Andrew</a> is struggling with underneath the tangible funeral issue is allowing himself to feel both his sadness at the death of the patient as well as his own significance to her.  In the course of supervision, <a href="https://andrewgeeves.com">Andrew⁠</a> finds that he is caught in a dynamic that is familiar to him where it is easier for him to go to conflict than to go to more tender feelings. </p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://andrewgeeves.com">Andrew⁠</a> explores some of the unconscious ploys that he uses to avoid certain feelings and comes to acknowledge the Lacanian claim that feelings can lie.  Thus one feeling for example guilt can be used to cover over another for example mourning. This frees <a href="https://andrewgeeves.com">⁠Andrew⁠⁠</a> to more thoughtfully approach the issue of whether or not to go to the funeral and to understand the deeper meaning of his dilemma. </p>