ABSTRACT
This chapter conveys the author’s experiences in a long-term treatment at different times with two terminally ill therapists, as well as reflections that occurred when her third analyst became fatally ill. The first section (Dr. Cecil Smit) was written spontaneously well over a decade ago, when she learned her second analyst was dying of cancer; the second section (Dr. Florence Cagan) was written about a year after her second analyst had died; and the third section (Dr. Aaron Feldman) was written while she was a candidate at IPTAR, after learning that her training analyst had stage 4 cancer. The Addendum was recently incorporated after the volume was edited. In these three sections, the author focuses on the different types of treatment she experienced, the impact that each had on her development, and how the different ways in which each therapist dealt with his or her impending death dramatically impacted the author’s ability to cope with traumatic loss. In examining the complexities of her relationships with her therapists, the author examines the dynamic, the dangers, and even the possible growth opportunities of therapeutic interaction with an analyst who is terminally ill.
