ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the repercussions that a sibling death might have upon the whole family, including any surviving siblings. In particular, if the loss of a sibling is hidden or never adequately mourned and remembered, its voice can be heard in future generations. Psychoanalytic theory since Sigmund Freud has neglected the possibility that their presence might be felt across several generations and might be demanding to be acknowledged. H. Loewald put this idea particularly well when he wrote, Those who know ghosts tell us that they long to be released from their ghost life and laid to rest as ancestors. As ancestors they live forth in the present generations, while as ghosts they are compelled to haunt the present generation with their shadow life. The chapter concludes with a case history of a patient, Muriel, who displayed some of the characteristics that seem common to all those who suffer a trauma.
