The present report describes three clinical experiences inside the Balint group of two hospitals: Hospital das Clínicas (UFPE) and Barão de Lucenas's Hospital, where patients had very serious illnesses, expressing pain and unable to express suffering. The authors report the difficulties with these patients' management of transference and try to articulate their psychic structure with melancholic structure.
Balint group; transference; patient-doctor relationship; death; secret