Fantasies of Love and Death in Life and Art

by Gediman, Helen K.

• ISBN13: 9780814730683
• ISBN10: 081473068X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-07-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

Love and death are prevalent motifs in legend, art, literature, and opera, as well as in the fantasies of most people. In art and life, the love/death archetype transcends culture, time, and geography.This book addresses two kinds of fantasies of love and death, one the passionate wish to die together with a loved one, the other the desire to extend one's life--and loves--after death. Illustrating how these love/death phenomena span a continuum from the normal to the pathological, Helen Gediman delves into the psychoanalytic meanings of these fantasies and motifs, as embedded in the arts, as well as in the human psyche.

Author Biography

Helen K. Gediman is Clinical Professor of Psychology at the NYU Postdoctoral Program.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction	p. 1
Reflections on Romanticism, Narcissism, and Creativity	p. 15
On Love, Dying, and Liebestod Fantasies	p. 33
The Normal and the Pathological in the Liebestod	p. 68
Resurrection Themes: An Introduction	p. 89
Background in Art and Psychoanalysis	p. 103
Resurrection Themes in Life: A Case Study	p. 138
Detecting Pathological Variants of Resurrection Fantasies	p. 167
Conclusion	p. 184
Notes	p. 195
References	p. 197
Indexes	p. 205
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