ABSTRACT
Since the onset of AIDS, 343,000 Americans, six times the number of soldiers killed in Vietnam, have died of it. Just as in that war, most of these men died when their lives were just getting started, “cut down in their prime” as the saying goes. This chapter is partly about those they left behind, their families, their lovers and their friends. It is about wounds that refuse to heal, grief that cannot be assuaged. I do not emphasize technical strategies, curative factors, or even personal breakthroughs, of which there were some. I deal mostly with countertransference issues. I describe a journey of self-discovery, one with which some of my readers can identify. I believe there is much that we can learn from our encounters with traumatized people (Schaffner, 1994); those immediately affected by the AIDS crisis are no exception. 210The group I discuss started in October 1994 as part of the HIV Clinical Service under the directorship of Dr. Mark Blechner. The HIV Clinical Service is an outreach program at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City. The group meets in my office once a week for an hour and a half and has an open-door policy for new members. The duration of the group is intended to be long term.
