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Show 64 Twenty In the opinion of the psychiatrist, Annis needs not only continued medication, but a change of life-circumstance: her depression is in part reaction to the emptiness of the large family house, in part a delayed grief response to the death of Luel; it is a reaction to future losses too, anticipating a decline in mobility, appearance, health. "Or you could say it's like a premature decathexis," he conjectures, and he describes the final stages of leave-taking, disinterest, detachment from the world, usually seen only at the end of the long defeat of the terminally ill. "Some people just seem finished with the world." He recommends that they consider moving: there is an excellent retirement community, he says, not very far away. John and Roderick and Evan tell Annis. "It isn't what I want," she laughs. "But I'll be glad to look." |