Eugene J Mahon
Biographic Data
| ID | 4055417 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eugene J Mahon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eugene J |
| FAMILY NAME | Mahon |
| SIGNATURE | MAHON E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Training and Supervising Analyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, and is a member of the New York Freudian Society. |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A Crossword in a dream
A fifty-two-year-old man, a novelist by trade, who had entered analysis with writer’s block three years earlier, dreamt a dream that illustrated the main conflicts of the analysis with such an econ
Prejudice: Complicit and Implicit
Prejudice could be defined as an irrational sense of superiority, an ironic expression of an unconscious feeling of inferiority that claims paradoxically that one human identity is worthier than another. Implicit prejudice would suggest the unconscious nature of a bias within an individual, whereas complicit prejudice would suggest a shared bias within a family, or group, or even a whole society. The two (implicit and complicit) are intimately co…
For Shelly
Wording the Strange
Play, Free Association, and Enactment
In this article I define childhood symbolic play, free association, and enactments as distinct entities despite the important strands of connective tissue that bind them psychologically. To Freud's definition of play being the same as fantasy, except for play's need to use props and playthings to actualize itself, I add action as an obvious but yet nevertheless neglected component of childhood symbolic play. I suggest that the potential for free …
The Evolution of Dreams: A Fifty Year Follow-Up
A child that was analyzed from four years of age to nine returned for brief visits at age twelve, nineteen, thirty; and at fifty for a more sustained analytic engagement. He reported new dreams on each return visit. Given this contact with him for almost fifty years it has been possible to reflect on the progression of his dreams over five decades. While it is clear that dreams do reflect developmental challenges there is also a remarkable contin…
Clarence’s Dream in Richard III: A Dream within a Dream
Shakespeare planted dreams in many of his plays to sharpen the psychological features of a character or to promote dramatic irony. They are all quite effective, but Clarence’s dream in Richard III
A Cartoon in a Dream
so to speak, planted in manifest content by the dream-work to attract special attention to what is manifest, when what is latent is in danger of exposing itself too radically. In previous publications the author has described similar, unusual, conspicuous insertions in dreams (a joke in a dream; a pun in a dream; a parapraxis in a dream; a trick in a dream; the uncanny in dreams; dreams within dreams). In all of these instances it was possible, u…
Trump Dreams: A Brief Communication
A highly educated, liberal, middle-aged man whose analysis was nearing termination was alarmed when he had a series of what he called “Trump Dreams.” As a very brief sketch of his analysis and the
The Universal Analogy: The Complementary Visions of Poetry and Psychoanalysis
The “scientific” aspects of poetry and psychoanalysis are emphasized in this paper. Baudelaire believed that poetry was the most scientific discipline of all given that it alone recognized and implemented the concept of a universal analogy, by which he meant that in poetry there is no restriction on the words or images that a poet may decide to bring together as the phenomenal world is being investigated and sublimated. This is decidedly similar …
Affect, Symptom, Fantasy, Dream: Clinical and Theoretical Considerations
A symptom being studied in the process of analysis can be seen as not unlike the unconscious affect it sprang from. The author presents a case in which a symptom, premature ejaculation, was analogous to the unconscious affect of guilt, which itself seemed to be a premature defensive transformation of a deeper current of anger. Guilt was interpreted as if it were a psychic premature ejaculation, a defensive derailment of anger. Fantasy and dream s…
A Trick in a Dream: On the Dream Work’s Impressive Creativity
Dreamsdream worktrickeryFreudcreativitydeathassociationsoedipal issuestransferenceregressionanalytic process
Screen Memories: A Neglected Freudian Discovery
In 1899, Freud introduced the concept of screen memories. His insights were revolutionary: screen memories do not emerge into consciousness at the time of recall, he argued; they are formed at that time and, moreover, historical accuracy is not their prime concern. In this article, the author reviews two of Freud's screen memories, as well as two screen memories from a completed analysis of one of his own patients. He argues that, if screen memor…
Insight Agonistes: A Reading of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King
In this reading of Sophocles's Oedipus the King, the author suggests that insight can be thought of as the main protagonist of the tragedy. He personifies this depiction of insight, calling it Insight Agonistes, as if it were the sole conflicted character on the stage, albeit masquerading at times as several other characters, including gods, sphinxes, and oracles. This psychoanalytic reading of the text lends itself to an analogy between psychoan…
Insight as Defiance: A Neglected Aspect of Self-Awareness
Insightself-awarenessdefianceanalytic processfree associationadolescenceparapraxistherapeutic actionrepressionBibleOedipus Rex
Mourning, Dreaming, and The Discovery of the Oedipus Complex
The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died--the triadic nature of the Oedi…
Play and Its Vicissitudes
KeywordsPlayplayfulnessHolocausttraumachild psychoanalysisfantasyFreudpsychopathologycreativity
The Uncanny in a Dream
In previous publications, the author has focused on particular types of inclusions in dreams (Mahon 2002a, 2002b, 2005a, 2007). In this paper, the author explores an instance of the uncanny in a dream and speculates on the particular function such an inclusion might have served. A patient dreamed about the name of an author, Thomas B. Costain, which he believed at first to be a fictitious dream concoction. In fact, all his initial associations de…
The Spit and Image: A Psychoanalytic Dissection of a Colloquial Expression
"He is the spit of his father" or "he is the spit and image of his father" is a colloquial expression that has graced informal English for many centuries. When a "spitting image" made an entrance in the manifest content of an analysand's dream, it became possible to add a psychoanalytic point of view to an etymological and anthropological record. After discussing both this clinical case and an "anthropological case history," the author examines t…
The Death of Hamnet: An Essay on Grief and Creativity
The author argues that Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600) was influenced by the death in 1596 of the playwright's 11-year-old twin son, Hamnet. Beyond the similarity between the dead child's name and the play's title, the language of the play, a supreme act of sublimation, does at times seem preoccupied with a kind of linguistic twinning. The play's variations on the theme of doubling-pairs of characters, for example, and the many instances of hendiadys…
Seeing the Light
Seeing the light is an expression that usually connotes a conceptual grasp of meaning in all its complexity, while the perception of light is not the issue. In this paper, the authors present a patient with an exquisite light sensitivity that disturbs her sleep; she is "seeing the light" in a symptomatic, concrete way. Light itself has become a compliant and collusive element onto which an aspect of conflict is displaced in the service of self-de…
A Pun in a Dream
To Repress: A Note on an Ambiguity of Meaning
An analysand used the word repress in a dream in an unusual way. In the dream, a record had been re-pressed: it was not the original disc but a copy. This manifest meaning of the word led associatively to more latent meanings. A kind of dialectical process ensued whereby, whenever the concept of repression came up, several meanings had to be considered to set the record straight. The classical way of thinking about repression had been augmented a…
A Parapraxis in a Dream
When a parapraxis is put on display in a dream, one can only wonder what service the willful mistake is rendering to resourceful dream work. Freud taught us that anything that appears in the manifest content of a dream may well be a disguise or a distortion of a subject that originally made an anxiety-provoking, and hence short-lived, first appearance in latent dream thoughts. Dreams in dreams and jokes in dreams have been examined from this pers…
Playing and Working Through: A Neglected Analogy
The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be tho…
A Parapraxis in a Dream
When a parapraxis is put on display in a dream, one can only wonder what service the willful mistake is rendering to resourceful dream work. Freud taught us that anything that appears in the manifest content of a dream may well be a disguise or a distortion of a subject that originally made an anxiety-provoking, and hence short-lived, first appearance in latent dream thoughts. Dreams in dreams and jokes in dreams have been examined from this pers…
The “Dissolution” of the Oedipus Complex: A Neglected Cognitive Factor
(1991). The “Dissolution” of the Oedipus Complex: A Neglected Cognitive Factor. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 628-634
To Repress: A Note on an Ambiguity of Meaning
An analysand used the word repress in a dream in an unusual way. In the dream, a record had been re-pressed: it was not the original disc but a copy. This manifest meaning of the word led associatively to more latent meanings. A kind of dialectical process ensued whereby, whenever the concept of repression came up, several meanings had to be considered to set the record straight. The classical way of thinking about repression had been augmented a…
Screen Memories and Termination of a Psychoanalysis: A Preliminary Communication
The Death of Hamnet: An Essay on Grief and Creativity
The author argues that Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600) was influenced by the death in 1596 of the playwright's 11-year-old twin son, Hamnet. Beyond the similarity between the dead child's name and the play's title, the language of the play, a supreme act of sublimation, does at times seem preoccupied with a kind of linguistic twinning. The play's variations on the theme of doubling-pairs of characters, for example, and the many instances of hendiadys…
A Pun in a Dream
The Uncanny in a Dream
In previous publications, the author has focused on particular types of inclusions in dreams (Mahon 2002a, 2002b, 2005a, 2007). In this paper, the author explores an instance of the uncanny in a dream and speculates on the particular function such an inclusion might have served. A patient dreamed about the name of an author, Thomas B. Costain, which he believed at first to be a fictitious dream concoction. In fact, all his initial associations de…
Insight as Defiance: A Neglected Aspect of Self-Awareness
Insightself-awarenessdefianceanalytic processfree associationadolescenceparapraxistherapeutic actionrepressionBibleOedipus Rex
Mourning, Dreaming, and The Discovery of the Oedipus Complex
The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died--the triadic nature of the Oedi…
The Impact of Psychoanalysis on Creativity
Prejudice: Complicit and Implicit
Prejudice could be defined as an irrational sense of superiority, an ironic expression of an unconscious feeling of inferiority that claims paradoxically that one human identity is worthier than another. Implicit prejudice would suggest the unconscious nature of a bias within an individual, whereas complicit prejudice would suggest a shared bias within a family, or group, or even a whole society. The two (implicit and complicit) are intimately co…
Play, Free Association, and Enactment
In this article I define childhood symbolic play, free association, and enactments as distinct entities despite the important strands of connective tissue that bind them psychologically. To Freud's definition of play being the same as fantasy, except for play's need to use props and playthings to actualize itself, I add action as an obvious but yet nevertheless neglected component of childhood symbolic play. I suggest that the potential for free …
A Trick in a Dream: On the Dream Work’s Impressive Creativity
Dreamsdream worktrickeryFreudcreativitydeathassociationsoedipal issuestransferenceregressionanalytic process
Screen Memories: A Neglected Freudian Discovery
In 1899, Freud introduced the concept of screen memories. His insights were revolutionary: screen memories do not emerge into consciousness at the time of recall, he argued; they are formed at that time and, moreover, historical accuracy is not their prime concern. In this article, the author reviews two of Freud's screen memories, as well as two screen memories from a completed analysis of one of his own patients. He argues that, if screen memor…
Insight Agonistes: A Reading of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King
In this reading of Sophocles's Oedipus the King, the author suggests that insight can be thought of as the main protagonist of the tragedy. He personifies this depiction of insight, calling it Insight Agonistes, as if it were the sole conflicted character on the stage, albeit masquerading at times as several other characters, including gods, sphinxes, and oracles. This psychoanalytic reading of the text lends itself to an analogy between psychoan…
Seeing the Light
Seeing the light is an expression that usually connotes a conceptual grasp of meaning in all its complexity, while the perception of light is not the issue. In this paper, the authors present a patient with an exquisite light sensitivity that disturbs her sleep; she is "seeing the light" in a symptomatic, concrete way. Light itself has become a compliant and collusive element onto which an aspect of conflict is displaced in the service of self-de…
Playing and Working Through: A Neglected Analogy
The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be tho…
The Remarkable Beatrix Potter
Screen Memories and Termination of a Psychoanalysis: A Preliminary Communication
Discussion of ?pathological attachments and their relationship to affective disorders in adult life
Some aspects of separation and loss in therapy with disturbed children
The “Dissolution” of the Oedipus Complex: A Neglected Cognitive Factor
(1991). The “Dissolution” of the Oedipus Complex: A Neglected Cognitive Factor. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly: Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 628-634
The Impact of Psychoanalysis on Creativity
The Remarkable Beatrix Potter
Yesterday's Silence: An Irreverent Invocation of Beckett's Analysis With Bion
Anna and Sigmund At the Rue Royale
Playing and Working Through: A Neglected Analogy
The author proposes an analogy between certain features of playing and aspects of working through. Conceptualizing psychoanalysis as the process whereby unconscious fantasy is uncovered and then subjected to rigorous scrutiny, and building on Freud's (1908) insight that play is the same as fantasy--with the essential difference that fantasy links itself to real objects in play, such as toys and playthings--the author proposes that play can be tho…
To Repress: A Note on an Ambiguity of Meaning
An analysand used the word repress in a dream in an unusual way. In the dream, a record had been re-pressed: it was not the original disc but a copy. This manifest meaning of the word led associatively to more latent meanings. A kind of dialectical process ensued whereby, whenever the concept of repression came up, several meanings had to be considered to set the record straight. The classical way of thinking about repression had been augmented a…
A Parapraxis in a Dream
When a parapraxis is put on display in a dream, one can only wonder what service the willful mistake is rendering to resourceful dream work. Freud taught us that anything that appears in the manifest content of a dream may well be a disguise or a distortion of a subject that originally made an anxiety-provoking, and hence short-lived, first appearance in latent dream thoughts. Dreams in dreams and jokes in dreams have been examined from this pers…
A Pun in a Dream
The Death of Hamnet: An Essay on Grief and Creativity
The author argues that Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600) was influenced by the death in 1596 of the playwright's 11-year-old twin son, Hamnet. Beyond the similarity between the dead child's name and the play's title, the language of the play, a supreme act of sublimation, does at times seem preoccupied with a kind of linguistic twinning. The play's variations on the theme of doubling-pairs of characters, for example, and the many instances of hendiadys…
Seeing the Light
Seeing the light is an expression that usually connotes a conceptual grasp of meaning in all its complexity, while the perception of light is not the issue. In this paper, the authors present a patient with an exquisite light sensitivity that disturbs her sleep; she is "seeing the light" in a symptomatic, concrete way. Light itself has become a compliant and collusive element onto which an aspect of conflict is displaced in the service of self-de…
The Spit and Image: A Psychoanalytic Dissection of a Colloquial Expression
"He is the spit of his father" or "he is the spit and image of his father" is a colloquial expression that has graced informal English for many centuries. When a "spitting image" made an entrance in the manifest content of an analysand's dream, it became possible to add a psychoanalytic point of view to an etymological and anthropological record. After discussing both this clinical case and an "anthropological case history," the author examines t…
The Uncanny in a Dream
In previous publications, the author has focused on particular types of inclusions in dreams (Mahon 2002a, 2002b, 2005a, 2007). In this paper, the author explores an instance of the uncanny in a dream and speculates on the particular function such an inclusion might have served. A patient dreamed about the name of an author, Thomas B. Costain, which he believed at first to be a fictitious dream concoction. In fact, all his initial associations de…
Mourning, Dreaming, and The Discovery of the Oedipus Complex
The author argues that the structure of mourning and the structure of the Oedipus complex are triadic, the latter being obvious and easy to conceptualize, while the former is quite subtle. When it is the father who is mourned, the son must repeatedly invoke the dead object so that libidinal cathexis can be reinvested in living objects. Such was the situation in which Freud found himself in 1896 when his father died--the triadic nature of the Oedi…
Play and Its Vicissitudes
KeywordsPlayplayfulnessHolocausttraumachild psychoanalysisfantasyFreudpsychopathologycreativity
Insight Agonistes: A Reading of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King
In this reading of Sophocles's Oedipus the King, the author suggests that insight can be thought of as the main protagonist of the tragedy. He personifies this depiction of insight, calling it Insight Agonistes, as if it were the sole conflicted character on the stage, albeit masquerading at times as several other characters, including gods, sphinxes, and oracles. This psychoanalytic reading of the text lends itself to an analogy between psychoan…
Insight as Defiance: A Neglected Aspect of Self-Awareness
Insightself-awarenessdefianceanalytic processfree associationadolescenceparapraxistherapeutic actionrepressionBibleOedipus Rex
A Trick in a Dream: On the Dream Work’s Impressive Creativity
Dreamsdream worktrickeryFreudcreativitydeathassociationsoedipal issuestransferenceregressionanalytic process
Screen Memories: A Neglected Freudian Discovery
In 1899, Freud introduced the concept of screen memories. His insights were revolutionary: screen memories do not emerge into consciousness at the time of recall, he argued; they are formed at that time and, moreover, historical accuracy is not their prime concern. In this article, the author reviews two of Freud's screen memories, as well as two screen memories from a completed analysis of one of his own patients. He argues that, if screen memor…
Affect, Symptom, Fantasy, Dream: Clinical and Theoretical Considerations
A symptom being studied in the process of analysis can be seen as not unlike the unconscious affect it sprang from. The author presents a case in which a symptom, premature ejaculation, was analogous to the unconscious affect of guilt, which itself seemed to be a premature defensive transformation of a deeper current of anger. Guilt was interpreted as if it were a psychic premature ejaculation, a defensive derailment of anger. Fantasy and dream s…
The Universal Analogy: The Complementary Visions of Poetry and Psychoanalysis
The “scientific” aspects of poetry and psychoanalysis are emphasized in this paper. Baudelaire believed that poetry was the most scientific discipline of all given that it alone recognized and implemented the concept of a universal analogy, by which he meant that in poetry there is no restriction on the words or images that a poet may decide to bring together as the phenomenal world is being investigated and sublimated. This is decidedly similar …
Trump Dreams: A Brief Communication
A highly educated, liberal, middle-aged man whose analysis was nearing termination was alarmed when he had a series of what he called “Trump Dreams.” As a very brief sketch of his analysis and the
Psychology (29 works) · Psychoanalysis (28 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Psychotherapist (13 works) · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications (13 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Dream (10 works) · Art (9 works) · Psychoanalytic theory (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works)