Approach to terminally ill patients: Psychodynamic aspects - “Death as a symbol of transformation”

Abstract

The author discusses the importance of readdressing death as something natural, retrieving it from the interdict in which it finds itself. He attempts to show the extent to which this aspect creates distortions to life, determining a series of disorders in medical conduct, especially in the approach to terminally ill patients. He defends the idea that it is a disease of our Western culture and that the situation that leads to this repression is the negation of death. In line with the theoretical references of Jung’s Analytical Psychology, the author proposes conducts to try to rescue the symbolic experience of death and restore the life-death dialectical polarity. He supports the proposition that life can only have a full meaning if we do not negate death. He proposes that, as in childbirth, the progress of medicine should harmonize with respect to the limits of life and the patient’s personality, which are often disrespected. He discusses death as a fundamental symbol within the individuation process.