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This research, using a single case study, is centered on a history of complicated grief. The authors have two hypotheses : Complicated grief could be generated by the maintenance of archaic defense mechanisms in order to deal with the excessive affect produced by the trauma of a child‚s death and by the impossibility to work out the fantasmatic grief activated by guilt associated with the real conditions of the loss. Rorschach projective data and information obtained from the psychotherapeutic treatment sessions offer empirical confirmation to the authors. In conclusion, some preventive considerations are suggested.