ABSTRACT
The death of a child is always a shocking event. It is a death 'out of season' (Judd, 1989), upsetting the natural life-cycle where the old are expected to die first and be replaced by the young. This chapter focuses on two areas of emotional contact. The first is the nature of the emotional contact that is made between the parents in the wake of their child's death. The second is the nature of the emotional contact that is made between the two couples who come together in the brief encounter of the research interviews, that is, the two clinical researchers and the couple being interviewed. The chapter shows how our role as clinical researchers might affect the emotional contact made and how much the subject matter of this research, a couple's relationship with a child that has been cut short, might be reflected or re-enacted in the dynamics of the research relationship.
