Making Death Thinkable

Author(s) : Franco De Masi

Book Details

Publisher : Free Association Books
Published : January 2004
Cover : Paperback
Pages : 157
Category :
Reprinting
Category 2 :
Psychoanalysis
Catalogue No : 92403
ISBN 13 : 9781853437830
ISBN 10 : 1853437832

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The author explores how different psychoanalytic theories have addressed the issue of death, its presence or absence in the unconscious, as well as the implications of the theories of the death instinct on a more strictly clinical and technical level.

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Man's perception of the finite nature of life is always present, resulting in anxieties of varying intensity, depending on the person's character and on the phases of life he is going through. De Masi is aware of the philosophical, sociological, religious or mystical approaches to the problem of death, however he chooses to focus on, and remain within, the theoretical frame of reference of psychoanalysis.

Moreover De Masi is interested in thinking about the psychological resources available to man, to make death thinkable, when its inevitable occurrence needs to be faced. He is concerned with the transformation of the thought of death, from an unthinkable catastrophic event, to a natural conclusion of one's existence.
As a psychoanalyst, he explores the quality of the anxiety accompanying the idea of the natural occurrence of death, which, however, is a perturbing presence in the mind of the average man of our Western civilization.
We might fear, sense and anticipate the death of our loved ones, and we know that when it occurs we will need to face the emptiness that will result. Yet, the emptiness we will leave proves to be unthinkable. What do we mean then by "fear of death", what is death's status in our mind, what is it that torments us? Most significantly, how can we conceptualise our fear of death from a psychoanalytic perspective?

About the Author(s)

Franco De Masi is a Training and Supervising Analyst of the Italian Psychoanalytical Society and former President of Centro Milanese di Psicoanalisi and Secretary of the Training Milanese Institute. He is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist who worked for twenty years in psychiatric hospitals. Now he lives and works as a full time psychoanalyst in Milan. Currently his main interests are focused on the theoretical and technical psychoanalytical issues related to severely ill patients. He has published several papers in The International Journal of Psychoanalysis and in the Rivista Italiana di Psicoanalisi. He is author and editor of numerous books including Making Death Thinkable.

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