ABSTRACT
S. Freud discovered that we unconsciously invent ghosts because of our sense of guilt in relation to the dead; our ambivalence turns them into, "evil demons that have to be dreaded"; the proof of their existence is their persistence in living in our memory. Ghosts are omnipotent internal persecutors, who have the power, through being remembered, of "reappearing at any time in cunning and plotting ways". In the paranoid schizoid position, dread of ghosts comes from the fear of retribution. But at the threshold of the depressive position, part of the persecution comes from their power to inflict the terrible pain of guilt. Freud's dream, "Nori Vixit" is about revenants—ghosts—and the wish to destroy them. Freud's two "cocaine dreams": "Irma's injection" and "The botanical monograph", are dreams in which he is, dealing with guilt. In the dream "Irma's injection" Freud tries to prove that it is not his fault that his patient, instead of being cured, has become more ill.
