Abstract

CASSORLA, Roosevelt M. S.. East of Eden: madness, fetish and suicide. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2010, vol.44, n.2, pp. 147-157. ISSN 0486-641X.

Facts involved in the act of suicide, whether conscious or not, are discussed by means of clinical situations. The suicidal is supposed to have failed to make the Hell (in which he lives) habitable, giving sense to it. To escape from his torments, he fantasizes Paradise, where all his needs are fulfilled, unlike Nothingness. Everything and Nothingness, unknowable, will become one. Seeking comprehension, the author uses the myth of Adam and Eve: the ingestion of the forbidden fruit suggests, simultaneously, contact with reality (Hell) and the emergence of the capacity of thinking (symbolization and transformation of Hell). Situations close to annihilation are discussed, as is the eroticism of death, as well as situations in which a protective shell is constructed against reality, attacking life and creativity. Homicidal impulses become suicidal, aiming towards an imaginary life within the latter. Finally, the consideration of Paradise as a substitute fetish of unthinkable Nothingness is proposed, which results in consequences for Psychoanalysis.

Keywords : suicide; alpha-function; Paradise myth; psychosis; death instinct.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )