ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concepts of containment during a two-day consultation to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where a young premature infant girl was dying. Anxiety about death and dying, as elaborated by Isabel Menzies, was globally prevalent in the nursing and physician staff. The absence of psychic space to consider the tragedy of this child resulted in the father making not-so-veiled threats of returning to the NICU to murder the staff. The parents had been unable to consider the possibility of having a sick child. The absence of psychic space to consider the tragedy of this child resulted in the father making not-so-veiled threats of returning to the NICU to murder the staff. The NICU was in crisis caring for a premature baby who had severe congenital defects. The social defences in the medical setting consist of isolating individual caregivers from sick and dying patients by various workload management techniques.
