ABSTRACT
John Keats was born October 31, 1795 in London, England, the first child of Thomas and Frances Keats. Keats never talked about his childhood in later life and disliked having his birthday celebrated. The conflict over fusion and separation—individuation was a crucial one for Keats with its implications of ill-defined ego boundaries and difficulties in distinguishing dream from reality. This chapter explores the specific relationship between dreaming and poetic creativity. Thus the ever recurring wish for a primary breast experience becomes the prototype of hallucinatory wish fulfilment in all subsequent dream life. Though the wishes of life become progressively more complex and subtle, this remains as the deepest substrate occasionally to be revealed in regressive experiences during the course of analysis or other intense psychological vicissitudes. The conflict over fusion and separation—individuation was a crucial one for Keats with its implications of ill-defined ego boundaries and difficulties in distinguishing dream from reality.
