[Case history and the "unlived life"]

This article shows that case history cannot exclude that widely overlooked element of the past called "unlived life", which causes undoubted effects on the present state and on judgement of the future. Man separates each moment "unlived life" from lived historical reality by renouncing, rejecting, missing and letting slip. Tragedy as well as hope of human life are captured in the dialectic relation of renouncing and missing because man is permanently kept in the suspense, whether the reliefing renounce of today might change to a burdening sick-making missing of tomorrow. Parallels to the communication theory of D. Wyss, and the possibility to get down to the "unlived life" of a patient by using the TAT and the "Würzburg questionnaire" are shown.