“Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about … ” (T.S. Eliot, 1944) confronting a sense of emptiness in therapy

I love the paintings of Edward Hopper (1882–1967): In one there is a man alone at a gas station. Then, a man alone in an office, high above buildings. A woman with a red hat staring at a small teacup in her hands. Sometimes there are groups together, but even then, there is a sense of watching people who have been caught in that intimate space where the look is outwards, but the gaze, turned inwards. Often in the gaze, Hopper seems to capture a sense of emptiness. A sense we all have at times but can also feel raw, exposing, evoke fear or a feeling of nakedness when observed. It can be like being caught out. Someone else has glimpsed a secret; that underneath it all, there is emptiness. In his collection of poems, the Four Quartets, T.S Eliot describes the times when emptiness is exposed and the unease this creates. It is like that moment when the façade in the theatre is rolled away, leaving only blackness. Or an incredible description of the unsettling time when the underground train in the tube stops between stations just a little too long: