Mortal gifts: a two-part essay on the therapist's mortality. Part I: untimely loss

The absence of theoretical and practical provisions for the patient whose therapist dies or becomes seriously ill reflects underlying problems regarding termination. Therapy is unique among human intimacies in that its goal is separation, a paradox that informs both the near-silence of early termination theory and the confusion in more recent writing. The therapist's emotional involvement must be understood through the therapeutic relationship as part of "mortal" life, that is, as a specialized category within ordinary human interactions. The profession has neglected the therapist's mortality, in figurative as well as literal senses. This neglect, a covert grandiosity, is the "Olympian Delusion." On one level, inadequate termination theory underlines failure to confront the therapist's mortality; more profoundly, failure to confront the therapist's mortality underlies deficiencies in termination theory. The mystique of the superhuman therapist can lead to a professional reticence that is less than fully human, abrogating the patient's right to a decent, human leave taking.