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An Overview of Separation Theory

By Robert Firestone

Separation Theory integrates psychoanalytic and existential systems of thought by showing how early interpersonal pain, and separation anxiety and later death anxiety lead to the development of powerful psychological defenses.

Read on www.psychalive.org

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Terminal Options for the Irreversibly Ill

My Feb. 5 column, “A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit,” prompted a deluge of information and requests for information on how people too sick to reap meaningful pleasure from life might be able to control their death.

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A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit

Studies of dying patients who seek a hastened death have shown that their reasons often go beyond physical ones like intractable pain or emotional ones like feeling hopeless.

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What Cancer Takes Away

When I got sick, I warned my friends: Don’t try to make me stop thinking about death.

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Old Age Is Not Guaranteed

Zen training talks a lot about death. But one practitioner found that it doesn’t necessarily prepare you to face your own.

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What a Doctor Wishes Patients Knew About the End

Both providers and patients do have power to shape their experience together, especially if they take the time to have a few crucial conversations. In the spirit of palliation, here are a few things, as a physician, I wish I could share more often with patients and their caregivers.

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My Own Life

A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out—a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver.

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Attachment Theory