November 2024: "The Hardest Passage: A Psychoanalyst Accompanies her Patient into Dementia" Presented by: Maxine Anderson, MD, FIPA

'The Hardest Passage: A Psychoanalyst Accompanies her Patient into Dementia' is both the title of this presentation and Maxine Anderson’s forthcoming book that grew out of an encounter with one of her first analytic patients; a woman who recontacted her some 40 years following termination of the patient’s analysis, hoping for help to face the deepening impact of dementia. Feeling “too little is known about the disease,” Anderson’s patient and her husband generously permitted the author to write about their end-of-life work together. Her presentation offers glimpses of rarely documented clinical experiences over a three-and-a-half years period of time as the patient’s illness deepened. Included are observations from patient’s point of view, her care-givers, and the analyst’s own responses, including dreams, which aided her evolving understanding. Learning Objectives 1. Following the presentation, the participant will have a deeper appreciation of the emotional impact of dementia upon the sufferer, her care-givers, and the community. 2. Following the presentation, the participant will have a deeper appreciation of the value of emotional accompaniment in facing the difficult truths incurred in deepening dementia. 3. Following the presentation the participant will have a deepened appreciation of the function of mourning in attentive dementia care.