Citation

Kimmel K. J. Anal. Psychol. 2017; 62(5): 732-743.

Affiliation

Seattle.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Society of Analytical Psychology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1468-5922.12360

PMID

28994483

Abstract

The survivor of a decade of childhood sexual trauma and violence, perpetrated by a monstrous father, produced a series of dreams in the final year of a ten-year analysis. They illuminated the 'death drive' beneath a lifelong preoccupation with dying and fantasies of submission to death, perpetuated by the promise of hoped-for freedom from pain and release from a life of suffering. The initial dream involved the collapse of a team of white horses drawing him in a pillory cart to his own hanging for a crime he did not commit. It signified the collapse of a fragile psychological system based on his role as the 'sacrificial lamb,' protecting a (not so) innocent mother. The raw truth was now unconcealed: primal, violent, and terrifying dreams and affects emerged where he was now the murderous aggressor. His dreams would become primary agents for an instinctive, life-giving authenticity to emerge, offering him clemency from the shattering repetitions of persecution and dissociation.

© 2017, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

Language: en

Keywords

'heiliger Märtyrer'; 'verdammter Verbrecher'; Dialektik; Nachträglichkeit; Todesphantasien; Todestrieb; Träume; death drive; dialectics; dialectique; dialettica; dialécticas; dissociation; dreams; fantasie di morte; fantasies of death; fantasmes de mort; fantasías de muerte; impulso di morte; nachträglichkeit; pulsion de mort; pulsión de muerte; rêves; sogni; sueños; «осужденный преступник»; «святой мученик»; влечение к смерти; диалектика; сновидения; фантазии о смерти; ‘condemned criminal’; ‘condenado criminal’; ‘criminel condamné’; ‘saint martyr’; ‘saintly martyr’; ‘santo mártir’; “criminale condannato”; “vittima santificata”; “神圣的殉教者”; “被谴责的罪”; 后延性; 梦; 死亡幻想; 死亡趋力; 辩证