ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the life and work of the German writer Heinrich von Kleist from a psychoanalytic perspective and is intended as a contribution to the understanding of the interrelationship of early trauma, disorders of memory, borderline phenomena, liebestod and the creative process. Kleist was born October 18, 1777 in Frankfurt am Oder, the middle of 5 children of his father’s second marriage. Kleist was prone to depressions with profuse somatization centred on the gastro-intestinal system, which he ascribed to the “amazing linkage of the mind with a bundle of bowels and entrails.” Kleist’s reaction approximates that of the nursing infant hallucinating the absent breast. Borderline features were prominent in Kleist’s character structure, especially his deployment of such defence mechanisms as overidealization, debasement, splitting, denial and projection. That Kleist was severely traumatized during the oral phase is quite clear. As a compensatory tactic, he became a prolific reader, an activity that provided him with a degree of passive gratification.
