Citation

Meyer BC. Psychoanal. Q. 1983; 52(3): 327-352.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

6351146

Abstract

Focused on selected details in the lives and creative works of Samuel Johnson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Houdini, this paper explores a seeming antinomy between claustrophobic annihilation and aviation. At first glance the latter appears as an antidote to the threat of entrapment and death. On a deeper level the distinction fades as the impression arises that in the examples cited, flying may represent an unconscious expression of a wish for death and ultimate reunion.

Language: en