@article{ref1,
title="Conradian Horror: Suicide, Loss and Heart of Darkness",
journal="British journal of psychotherapy",
year="2021",
author="Davies, R.",
volume="37",
number="1",
pages="130-152",
abstract="This paper presents a personal understanding of the work of two prominent writers, namely the English-Polish author Joseph Conrad and the psychotherapist Robert Hobson. I make particular reference to Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness as a work that decidedly influenced the thinking of Hobson. The allegoric themes evoked provide a landscape of rich contemplation, heavily laden with metaphor and allowing an exploration of suicide and loss. With this, I have attempted to make a statement on the impact that suicide has upon the therapist and, in doing so, provide some clinical and personal vignettes relating to my experience with suicide. I also provide an account of a deeply traumatized patient with dissociative identity disorder and chronic suicidal ideation. These reflections draw upon the language of Conrad and Hobson as suicide is considered both in a concrete literal sense and as an expansive non-linear metaphor. The term 'Conradian Horror' is given particular salience as evoking the dark and dismal vista of suicide and loss. © 2020 BPF and John Wiley & Sons Ltd<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0265-9883",
doi="10.1111/bjp.12604",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjp.12604"
}