The Wrongful Conviction of Oscar Pistorius by Brent Willock

Author:Brent Willock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Oscar Pistorius;Reeva Steencamp;Wrongful Conviction;Parasomnia;South Africa;Dreams;Dream enactment;Violence;Violent parasomnia;Sleep Disorders;Sleepsex (Sexsomnia);Somnambulism;Paradoxical sleep;Sleep terror (pavor nocturnes);Confusional arousal;rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD);Dreamwalking;Shame;Non-insane automatism;Involuntarism;Altered states of consciousness;Male socialization;Inattentional blindness;Parasomnia overlap disorder;Psychoanalysis;Freud;Carlos Schenck;Rosalind Cartwright;Michel Cramer Bornemann;Mark Mahowald;June Steencamp;Barry Roux;Gerrie Nel;Melanie Klein;Persecutory object;Paranoid-Schizoid Position;Trauma;Oedipus complex
Publisher: Torchflame Books
Published: 2018-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Magical Mystery Tour

Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether.

—Luis Buñuel

Previous chapters focussed on psychological and legal matters crucial for understanding the shocking events that occurred in Oscar Pistorius’ home on Saint Valentine’s Day 2013. Discussion adhered closely to the facts, and to gaping holes—mysterious antimatter in the fabric of those reported occurrences. Relevant ideas pertaining to dreams, parasomnias, and non-insane automatism were introduced. Might knowing more about the fascinating nature of dreaming, the structure of the mind, the dynamic (repressed) unconscious, and other such intriguing matters help shed even more light on the enigmatic phenomena we are exploring?

Prior to venturing into these more theoretically informed, speculative domains, a word of warning. Parts of this chapter may not appeal to those who prefer sticking to the facts. They may not want to struggle with these more challenging ideas. These readers need not worry. Subsequent chapters will not depend on these more imaginative ideas. The rest of this book will be as grounded and comprehensible as, hopefully, the preceding chapters have been.

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud described two principles of mental functioning. He referred to the rational reasoning of everyday life as secondary process cognition. In contrast, the unconscious operates in accord with different, primary process principles. Immersing himself in the world of dreams where primary process rules, Freud asserted that their study constitutes the royal road to understanding unconscious processes.

Expanding on Freud’s seminal ideas, Melanie Klein posited two other forms of psychological organization. At the beginning of life, we operate predominantly in the Paranoid-Schizoid (PS) Position. Schizoid means split. The infant’s worldview is divided into one that feels good versus another that feels bad (persecutory, ‘paranoid’). To capture the primitive, sensual, body-based nature of these diametrically different domains, Klein labeled the perceived ‘objects’ characterizing these states as the Good and Bad Breast. Her American contemporary, Harry Stack Sullivan, spoke of these dissociated infantile realms of the good and bad mother as being linked to good me, bad me (and not-me).

In Klein’s view, the infantile mind cannot encompass contradictions and nuance. Things are experienced in black or white terms (all good or all bad). Absence of the beloved mother is not viewed as a temporary frustration. Her departure for more than a brief time feels catastrophic. The vacuum created by her unavailability is quickly filled by the persecutory object. When infants feel frustration, agony, and terror, they are likely to feel this malevolent mother is intentionally inflicting these affects on them. When these children acquire language, they tell us about dreadful descendants of this bad breast (evil witches, dangerous monsters under the bed).

It is only with maturation that we become able to construct a more complex view of our mothers and the world. Klein called that more evolved state the Depressive (D) Position. American psychoanalyst Thomas Ogden suggested renaming it the Historical Position to indicate that in it one no longer lives in dissociated moments of now.

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