Experiencing Endings and Beginnings

This book highlights the emotional turmoil which accompanies the changes we experience throughout life. It considers the nature of the anxieties aroused by a new situation, changes in our circumstances, beginnings, and endings of relationships, gains and losses and the ending of a previous state throughout the lifespan.

Isca Wittenberg is a consultant psychoanalytic psychotherapist for children and adults who worked at the Tavistock Clinic for twenty-five years and was vice-chairman of the Tavistock for ten years. She is a lifetime honorary member of the Tavistock Clinic, and her previous books include Psycho-Analytic Insight and Relationships and The Emotional Experience of Teaching and Learning, the latter with contributions from Gianna Williams and Elsie Osborne.

Acknowledgements About the Author Preface to the first edition Author's Note CHAPTER ONE Learning from experience of endings and beginnings CHAPTER TWO From life inside mother to life outside CHAPTER THREE Separateness and new connections CHAPTER FOUR Weaning CHAPTER FIVE Becoming a child in the family CHAPTER SIX Going to nursery CHAPTER SEVEN Beginnings and endings in school CHAPTER EIGHT Tertiary education and entering the world of work CHAPTER NINE Getting married CHAPTER TEN Becoming a parent CHAPTER ELEVEN Bereavement CHAPTER TWELVE Retirement CHAPTER THIRTEEN Growing old and facing death CHAPTER FOURTEEN Growing ever older - facing the end of life References Bibliography Index