Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home
In Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home, Andrew Stein offers a groundbreaking new psychoanalytic treatment of the depression and other mental conflicts suffered by residents living in nursing homes. Freud famously argued that humans had a dual drive, toward life and toward death, and in this new study Stein shows that residents may suffer because they cannot control one part of that dualism, their "longing for nothingness." Weaving together elements of Freud's life and writings, Lacanian and Kleinian notions, and clinical material in a new and surprising manner, Stein shows that a frightening breakdown of symbolic and imaginary defenses opens nursing home residents to these deeply repressed longings. Because they often do not know how to respond, the result is an increase in their suffering and tendency to despair.

Longing for Nothingness makes an impassioned plea for all people, not only residents of nursing homes, to fully acknowledge the role of death in the structures of their desires. By doing this, they will be spared the unnecessary suffering caused by the struggle to keep their longings for death repressed. Stein presents an alternate strategy: bringing the longings for death a little more into consciousness, where they can be addressed without fueling debilitating symptoms like depression and rage.
1100304008
Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home
In Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home, Andrew Stein offers a groundbreaking new psychoanalytic treatment of the depression and other mental conflicts suffered by residents living in nursing homes. Freud famously argued that humans had a dual drive, toward life and toward death, and in this new study Stein shows that residents may suffer because they cannot control one part of that dualism, their "longing for nothingness." Weaving together elements of Freud's life and writings, Lacanian and Kleinian notions, and clinical material in a new and surprising manner, Stein shows that a frightening breakdown of symbolic and imaginary defenses opens nursing home residents to these deeply repressed longings. Because they often do not know how to respond, the result is an increase in their suffering and tendency to despair.

Longing for Nothingness makes an impassioned plea for all people, not only residents of nursing homes, to fully acknowledge the role of death in the structures of their desires. By doing this, they will be spared the unnecessary suffering caused by the struggle to keep their longings for death repressed. Stein presents an alternate strategy: bringing the longings for death a little more into consciousness, where they can be addressed without fueling debilitating symptoms like depression and rage.
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Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home

Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home

by Andrew Stein
Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home

Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home

by Andrew Stein

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Overview

In Longing for Nothingness: Resistance, Denial, and the Place of Death in the Nursing Home, Andrew Stein offers a groundbreaking new psychoanalytic treatment of the depression and other mental conflicts suffered by residents living in nursing homes. Freud famously argued that humans had a dual drive, toward life and toward death, and in this new study Stein shows that residents may suffer because they cannot control one part of that dualism, their "longing for nothingness." Weaving together elements of Freud's life and writings, Lacanian and Kleinian notions, and clinical material in a new and surprising manner, Stein shows that a frightening breakdown of symbolic and imaginary defenses opens nursing home residents to these deeply repressed longings. Because they often do not know how to respond, the result is an increase in their suffering and tendency to despair.

Longing for Nothingness makes an impassioned plea for all people, not only residents of nursing homes, to fully acknowledge the role of death in the structures of their desires. By doing this, they will be spared the unnecessary suffering caused by the struggle to keep their longings for death repressed. Stein presents an alternate strategy: bringing the longings for death a little more into consciousness, where they can be addressed without fueling debilitating symptoms like depression and rage.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780765705778
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 01/25/2010
Pages: 194
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Stein holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Union University and Institute. He sees patients in private practice and at a number of nursing home facilities in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Part I Death and the Chain of Life

1 The Destructive Side of Our Erotic Life 3

2 What Is a Death Wish in Early Freud? 27

3 Freud's Later Views Concerning Death as a Drive 47

4 Death and the Other 67

5 Death and the Chain of Life 89

Part II The Longing for "Nothingness" in the Nursing Home

6 Introduction to Death in the Nursing Home 113

7 Life for the Resident in the Nursing Home 121

8 Residents' Narcissistic Frames of Mind 137

9 The Negation of Death in the Nursing Home 153

10 Coda and Exit 169

Bibliography 179

Index 187

About the Author 189

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