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Conradian Horror: Suicide, Loss and Heart of Darkness
Author(s) -
Davies Russel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12604
Subject(s) - psychology , metaphor , psychoanalysis , suicidal ideation , dream , contemplation , psychic , ambivalence , poison control , psychotherapist , suicide prevention , linguistics , medical emergency , epistemology , philosophy , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
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.