ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Dan’s work with Frank, whose son dies of cancer. Frank contemplates suicide. Unknown to Frank, Dan’s father committed suicide. Frank and Dan are reciprocals: Dan is the child who lost his father, and Frank is a father who lost his child.
Curious parallels emerge in the treatment beginning with Frank and Dan dreaming the same dream of “waking up dead.” This mutual dream demonstrates the intersubjective connection of their unconscious minds. The following week Frank begins writing a novel. Talking about his stories becomes a focus in his therapy. Creative imagination eases the weight of traumatic loss.
The chapter concludes with a retelling of Frank’s first story, “So long,” introducing his protagonist Nigel, a detective; Max, a crazy architect; and Dr. Distanziert, a Freudian psychoanalyst. Having woken up dead, Nigel begins a spiritual journey through the netherworld encountering a succession of tests, looking for eternal life and an escape from human suffering. Max is in treatment with Distanziert who he repeatedly hurls out the window to his death, only to have the doctor reappear. “So long” is interpreted as Frank’s symbolic depiction of his unconscious therapeutic process. Ogden’s concept of the analytic third illuminates this intersubjective process.
