ABSTRACT
The changes in the person's adaptive ability and his defensive organization in relation both to the inner and the outer world form a prerequisite to the dying process. In the therapy of the dying patient, Rosenthal has pointed out that "the goal is to resolve the negative feelings toward himself and his past". The fantasies, dreams, affects and transference feelings bind the dying to another person, and keep his self coherent, thereby preventing its disintegration. His fantasies in the final stages of dying are often dreamlike, and he may find it difficult to discriminate between dreams and fantasies and transference experiences. There is an analogy in dreams and dying in that the final phase of dying does not consist of mere narcissistic regression but is an event of meeting death with a good integrated object. The dying person's symbiotic appeal is comparable to the desire an infant elicits in adults to care for it.
