Abstract

CAMARA, Leonardo  and  HERZOG, Regina. The reality of loss: considerations on grief and reality testing. Psicol. clin. [online]. 2018, vol.30, n.3, pp. 561-578. ISSN 0103-5665.  http://dx.doi.org/10.33208/PC1980-5438v0030n03A08.

This essay aims to unfold Freud's statement that the psychic elaboration of grief begins upon the realization of the loss of an object through the act of reality testing. While discussing this problem, the authors propose a definition of "immediacy testing" considering the development of the capacity to distinguish separation from loss. From this distinction, they postulate, also, a prior condition to the ability to experience an object's loss: the "state of perdition". It is concluded that the constructions undertaken in this article can help in the understanding of: certain relational characteristics of patients fitting so-called "borderline states"; and the place taken by the experience of grief in today's culture.

Keywords : reality testing; immediacy testing; grief; object loss; perdition.

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