Coping with the grief from losing a beloved Minister

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 20

Coping with the grief from losing a beloved Minister

By

A. K. GRANT

PSYCHIATRISTS and other counsellors are reporting a marked upsurge among financiers and businessmen of a rare mental condition brought about by the sacking of Roger Douglas. The condition is known as The-Roof-Hasn’t-Fallen-In-Syndrome, and its basic outlines were explained to me yesterday by Dr Catatonia Lobe, chief consultant to and proprietor of Lobe Hall, the wellknown private psychiatric hospital. “For four years, financial, and business leaders have been told that if Roger Douglas left the Government the roof would fall in,” Dr Lobe told me. "They were told this by the media, they were told it by aides of Roger Douglas, and all of them said it to each other.

"Now Roger Douglas has been sacked: the worst nightmare that any of them could ever have imagined has come true. And what do' they find? They find that financial calamity has not followed, the Earth is still rotating, financial markets have not collapsed, the share market is moribund but no more moribund than it was a couple of months ago, and in the immortal words of the Beatles, ’Oh-blah-dee, oh-blah-da, life goes on, yeah, fa-la-la-la, life goes on’.” “What effect does this.- discovery have on financial* and business leaders?” I asked.

“They find it profoundly disorientating,” said Dr Lobe. “It is as though a prop has been knocked out from under them. They don’t know what to believe any more. They begin to distrust their own reactions.

“They check themselves for business confidence and find that they have plenty of it, but they can’t work out why. They begin to wonder whether Roger Douglas was absolutely indispensable. They allow themselves the thrilling but at the same time fearful speculation of wondering whether he was always right. “They are adrift on a sea of existential uncertainty. Some find themselves weeping, for no apparent reason. Some begin to drink heavily. Others try to lose themselves through sex, much to the alarm of their wives.”

“How do you counsel such people?” I asked the doctor. “They have to work their way through the various stages of their grieving,” Dr Lobe replied. “Denial, anger, guilt and, finally, acceptance. “First, they deny to themselves that Roger Douglas has been sacked, even though all the evidence points to the contrary. This stage is short-lived, because these are rational people and reality, soon breaks in. “Denial is followed by anger. Their god has failed them, and their anxiety and despair at ttiat failure is turned against the god himself: they blame him for his

own disappearance. “Then their anger shades into guilt. Was it their fault? Obviously they didn’t sack him themselves, but are they in some mysterious, unconscious way implicated in the crime? “Have they had doubts about Douglas which' have, in some telepathic way, communicated themselves to the Prime Minister? Could they have intervened to save Douglas, or propitiated the P.M.’s wrath with gifts or sacrifices?

“Eventually reality breaks in here too, they realise that it was not their fault, there is nothing they can do about it and it is time to get on with their lives. That is the acceptance stage, and it is when that stage is reached that they are ready to be released from Lobe Hall back into the outside world.” “How long does your course of treatment take?” I asked. “That depends on the patient,” said Dr Lobe. “One forex dealer worked his way through the four stages in 35 minutes. Something of a record, I think. With others it may be days or even weeks. We can only watch and wait and administer appropriate pharmaceutical support.” “‘What sort of pharmaceutical support?” I asked. “A wide range of single-malt whiskies,” replied Dr Lobe. “Remember, this is the top end of the market we are talking about here.” ... •