'Clemency on the way to the gallows': death, dreams and dissociation†. Issue 5 (10th October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kimmel, Kenneth
• Is Part Of: Journal of analytical psychology. Volume 62:Issue 5(2017:Nov.)
• Page Start: 732
• Page End: 743
• Publication Date: 2017-10-10
• Subjects: dreams -- dissociation -- fantasies of death -- Nachträglichkeit -- death drive -- dialectics -- 'saintly martyr' -- 'condemned criminal'; rêves -- fantasmes de mort -- nachträglichkeit -- pulsion de mort -- dialectique -- 'saint martyr' -- 'criminel condamné'; Träume -- Todesphantasien -- Nachträglichkeit -- Todestrieb -- Dialektik -- 'heiliger Märtyrer' -- 'verdammter Verbrecher'; sogni -- fantasie di morte -- nachträglichkeit -- impulso di morte -- dialettica -- "vittima santificata" -- "criminale condannato"; сновидения -- фантазии о смерти -- nachträglichkeit -- влечение к смерти -- диалектика -- «святой мученик» -- «осужденный преступник»; sueños -- fantasías de muerte -- nachträglichkeit -- pulsión de muerte -- dialécticas -- 'santo mártir' -- 'condenado criminal'; 梦 -- 死亡幻想 -- 后延性 -- 死亡趋力 -- 辩证 -- "神圣的殉教者" -- "被谴责的罪"; Jungian psychology -- Periodicals; 131.3405
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-5922.12360
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8774

Abstract

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.