ABSTRACT
A father describes his open heart surgery, and states ‘I am not frightened of dying’. The therapist exclaims ‘I would be!’, and, turning towards Simon (aged 8), who is sitting next to his father, says, ‘Your father is brave! Do you think he always feels so brave inside?’ Simon looks up admiringly at his father and slowly shakes his head with a knowing smile. Father says ‘Well, it is not very nice coming round in that operating theatre’. He remembers how upset he was that his wife had not been there when he regained consciousness. She had told him that she had to be with the children; but he has never forgiven her for deserting him in his hour of need. He leans over and gives Simon a cuddle – or was it Simon who was cuddling his father. It is hard to tell. Simon is sitting next to his older brother Jeremy, who is 13. The two sit separating their parents. Mrs X says ‘I wonder if it’s all this talk of death that is upsetting Jeremy?’ Jeremy is so paralysed by obsessional rituals that he cannot get to school, or go to bed at night; he now sits slouching back in his chair, head and shoulders turned away from his father, but looking at the floor – and so also avoiding his mother’s gaze. She is hovering over him. He glances up at the therapist to give him a fleeting look of beseeching despair, but says nothing and returns his gaze to a point on the floor.
