Abstract
This chapter focuses on ‘Laurie’ whose young son, George, died a year prior to the interview. The interview transcript is provided and the panel responses analysed. In contrast to the preceding transcripts, Laurie’s story is told stoically, with the welfare of her surviving son at its core. This is crucial in helping professionals to understand their potential impact on surviving children. Laurie’s patience and attention to detail do not provoke strong judgements in the panel and yet the absence of such emotional responses leaves a lingering feeling that something is unresolved within the process. Drawing from this, the chapter explores the potentially cathartic nature of emotional responses as a means of confronting the defence mechanisms which may guard against discussion of sudden, unexpected child deaths.
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Turner, D. (2017). Laurie. In: Perspectives on the Experience of Sudden, Unexpected Child Death. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66017-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66017-2_8
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