title: "And Yet It Was a Blessing": The Case for Existential Maturity.
abstract: We are interested in the kind of well-being that can occur as a person approaches death; we call it "existential maturity." We describe a conceptual model of this state that we felt was realized in an individual case, illustrating the state by describing the case. Our goal is to articulate a generalizable, working model of existential maturity in concepts and terms taken from fundamentals of psychodynamic theory. We hope that a recognizable case and a model-based way of thinking about what was going on can both help guide care that fosters existential maturity and stimulate more theoretical modeling of the state.
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Supportive Oncology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine , Chicago, Illinois.|2 Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis , Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Linda L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Emanuel
authors.affiliation: 3 Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University , Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Neha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: 3 Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University , Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.affiliation: 4 Brookline , Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sarah B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Sonnenfeld
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D032722:Advance Care Planning; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005086:Existentialism / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000523:psychology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: existential maturity; human development; psychodynamic perspective; terminal illness