The Psychology of Letting Go

Abstract

While recently rereading The Duke’s Children, the last volume of Anthony Trollope’s Palliser series, I encountered the following remark: “Nothing will ever be quite what it used to be.”1 Or, to paraphrase the title character in the movie The Big Lebowski, “Change abides.”Letting things go is simply one facet in the continuous process of change with which we all must deal: the “C-word.” It seems reasonable to consider the situations that cause us to let things go and to examine the various reactions I have observed in myself and others in such circumstances. I hope that this analysis will . . .