Thursday’s Therapy - Grief's Abreaction

Thursday’s Therapy - Grief's Abreaction

Questions a Psychotherapist Asks Herself:

Merry Katherine had severe, fatal injuries to her right arm and her left leg in her crash that killed her on 8/2/2006...

After going through my lifetime with NO broken bones...ever...at all, then suddenly within roughly one year's time, I break FOUR BONES...

My husband injures his right arm, and then re-injures it, all within the past three years...

So, naturally, the psychotherapist within me begins to ask questions of my subconscious mind:

Are we as a loving family re-enacting one another's injuries unconsciously as expressions of "sympathy pain"?

Or, might we subconsciously be trying to work out the devastation wreaked on our systems by having stood helplessly by as our loved one was fatally injured?

Then, I crafted this poem:

Parents Accident-Prone After a Child's Death

or

Grief's Abreaction?

Daddy hurt his left leg, then you hurt yours;

You hurt your right arm, then Mommy hurt hers.

Daddy's hurt his right arm, me? my left leg—

When will this pattern stop? Now, I do beg!

Similar injuries of body parts...

By accident...or agony of hearts?

First it was Mommy's right arm, baby girl—

Broke my shoulder blade, took it from action;

Now, it's my left leg, down steps I would hurl:

Is this what they'd call—"Grief's Abreaction"?

Medical Dictionary:

Abreact – To release (repressed emotions) by acting out, as in words, behavior, or the imagination, the situation causing the conflict.

picture: http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/suffering.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abreact

Written 9/1/09 - Poem - Parents Accident-Prone After a Child's Death, or Grief's Abreaction? - Angie Bennett Prince