eiseEducation

Irrational guilt in complicated bereavement is often more than a painful expression of grief. Persistent self-blame may function as a powerful psychological defense—protecting against intolerable affects, maintaining an attachment to the person who has been lost, and preserving an illusion of omnipotent control in the face of a loss that cannot be undone.

Guilt may therefore become part of the very process that prevents mourning from progressing. Rather than relinquishing the lost relationship and integrating the reality of the loss, the bereaved person may remain psychologically bound to it through self-reproach, responsibility and unconscious fantasies of control.

This clinically focused webinar explores the relationship between mourning, masochism, irrational guilt and narcissistic defenses, with particular attention to how these dynamics emerge within the therapeutic relationship. Dr Paul Martin will examine the transference-countertransference exchange, including common clinician reactions, therapeutic impasses and the potential for enactments when working with complicated grief.

Participants will deepen their capacity to recognise guilt-driven defenses, understand what they may be protecting against, and work therapeutically toward facilitating mourning and supporting a more adaptive integration of the loss.