ABSTRACT
I write this book as a psychoanalyst and as a widow. I write it as someone who knows with every ber of my being that love and loss are a ubiquitous part of life, bringing the greatest joys and the greatest heartaches. In one way or another all relationships end. People leave, move on, die. Loss is an ever-present part of life, from the rst separation from our mother’s body, through growing up and leaving home, through navigating the break-up of relationships, through the dying of those we love, to the nal loss of our own death. In order to grow and thrive, we must learn to mourn, we must both move beyond the person we have lost while taking that person with us in our minds. If we fail to achieve this delicate balance, we live our lives either bogged down in endless pain or incapable of being connected with others in a deep, meaningful way. Love and Loss examines both my own and my patients’ struggles with loss and mourning, illustrating that seemingly unbearable pain can be both born and transformed.
