TY - JOUR PY - 2017// TI - 'Clemency on the way to the gallows': death, dreams and dissociation JO - Journal of analytical psychology A1 - Kimmel, Kenneth SP - 732 EP - 743 VL - 62 IS - 5 N2 - 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

LA - en SN - 0021-8774 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5922.12360 ID - ref1 ER -