ABSTRACT
Picasso said, “Art is a lie which tells the truth.” And the arts offer us one of the best ways to teach and to learn. Here we will use the work of a master storyteller and an insightful student of the human mind, William Shakespeare, who never heard of Freud, Lindemann, or Rando, yet who has given us a vivid picture of pathological grief—a label all too easily applied by mental health professionals but one for which we still lack a solid definition. We are taking Hamlet as a model because we are sure the drama represents pathology—by the end of the play, six of the main characters are dead, several strewn around the stage. I don’t think you can get more toxic than that!
