ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience of parental death on child and therapist. It focuses primarily on a little boy's premature confrontation with the unexpected and untimely death of his father. Benjamin was only 27 months old when his father died. The influences of mourning process on Benjamin's treatment were, for the most part, very subtle. The chapter highlights those moments that seemed most touched by the aspect of intraspychic processes. It first describes Benjamin's first three therapy sessions. The chapter then focuses on some important factors in young children's experience of parental loss, including the importance of holding a place for the physically absent but psychically present parent. Next, it discusses the clinical material, with particular attention to the nature of Benjamin's relationship to the author in these early sessions and his comments outside the therapy sessions.
