ABSTRACT
In their paper on "Family Intervention with Bereaved Children", Black and Urbanowicz conclude that the mental health of the surviving parent is a contributing factor to how the children involved manage loss and bereavement. In Bion's terms, the mother could not contain or modify the children's fears. Instead, the children presented with psychosomatic symptoms and suicidal ideation. The attack on both parent's reproductive organs by cancer raised particular anxieties in relation to the children's adolescence and their developing sexual identities. Esther Bick says that "this internal function of containing the parts of the self is dependent initially on the introjection of an external object, experienced as capable of fulfilling this function". Pynoos points to the different psychological demands on each family member when faced with a major loss or trauma: "The mutual lack of appreciation of different psychological challenges may lead to estrangement or impatience between parent and child or sibling and sibling".
