Unholy Ghosts
Vanishing, Recognition, and Disidentification
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21630324 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Danny Gellersen (Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 113-117 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychoanalytic Dialogues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1048-1885 • E-ISSN: 1940-9222 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10481885.2025.2607336 |
| OpenAlex | W7133852087 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
In considering the invaluable contributions of Ann Pellegrini and Marty A. Cooper, I focus my reply on a throughline of three emergent themes: vanishing, recognition, and disidentification. Drawing on the clinical material presented by Cooper and me, I outline a friction between the Relational conceptualizations of recognition/depersonalization and José Esteban Muñoz’s theorization of disidentification (1999), which positions drag performance as moving beyond the terms of recognition. I further elaborate on peculiarity as a site where social toxicity permeates queerness, and I reflect on the colonial impulses of “exceptionalism” (Pellegrini, Citation2026) that I confront as a peculiar psychoanalyst writing about and reading drag performance. I conclude with reflections on meeting one’s own Unholy Ghosts—an illumination made possible by the “sparkle” (Cooper, Citation2026) and collective insights that Cooper and Pellegrini have offered me
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration
| Highly cited | No |
|---|