O papel do psicólogo diante do insuportável da morte: um relato de experiência

Abstract

This study presents an experience report developed during the Multiprofessional Residency in Critical Patient Care, with clinical practice in the Emergency Department and the Intensive Care Unit of a university hospital. Focusing on the psychologist’s role in confronting the unbearable dimension of death, our work proposes a reflection about the presence, active listening and emotional support offered in contexts marked by urgency, suffering, and finitude. Using a qualitative approach and based on Psychoanalysis, particularly on the theoretical contributions of Freud and Winnicott, the elements that shape a hospital psychologist’s practice before the unbearable side of death, such as the containing function, the “good-enough environment” and the initial phase of grief when facing imminent loss. Three clinical reports are presented, illustrating how sensitive listening, the therapeutic use of silence, bonding, and ethical conduct become essential resources for psychological care in these settings. These experiences demonstrate that the psychologist’s role is not about eliminating pain, but to create psychicological conditions for suffering to be experienced, symbolized and recognized. In conclusion, when facing death, the psychologist’s presence becomes an important and essential form of support that holds the individual when their internal structures are unsettled, allowing something of life to remain possible even in the presence of finitude.