The experience of transplantation as reflected in dream life
A case study illustrating the mental processing of a lung transplant
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8972922 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lutz Goetzmann (0000-0003-3260-897X, Segeberger Kliniken, corresponding author), Christian Benden (0000-0002-8409-5646, Lung Transplantation and CF Center, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Barbara Ruettner (0000-0003-2814-7760, MSH Medical School Hamburg – University of Applied Sciences and Medical University), Uwe Wutzler (Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Asklepios Fachklinikum Stadtroda, Germany), Annette Boehler (University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland), Lutz Wittmann (0009-0005-8792-2634, International Psychoanalytic University Berlin) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 100 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 517-539 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00207578.2019.1589378 |
| PMID | 33945769 |
| OpenAlex | W2954540673 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
Although it is well known that a lung transplant enhances the recipient's quality of life, our knowledge of how it is processed mentally is limited. In this study, interviews were conducted with a lung-transplant patient two weeks, three months, and six months after surgery so as to investigate the relevant unconscious processing mechanisms. A dream reported in the first interview was analysed in accordance withapplying the Zurich Dream Process Coding System. A 'transplantation complex' was reconstructed on the basis of various sources of information (the dream and the waking narratives). The principal aspects of the transplantation complex that emerged from both the dream and the waking narratives concerned the oral-sadistic phantasy that the donor had been killed and that his lung, or soul, had been violently incorporated in the patient. The main unconscious themes involved in the processing of the transplant were found to have been already laid down in the dream and to have been presented in it in the form of visual analogues. According to our interpretation of the data analysed, powerful cannibalistic phantasies and death wishes played an important part in the processing of the transplant. These archaic phantasies may have been actualized by the transplant
Art · Dream · Literature · Lung transplantation · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Unconscious mind · Medicine · Organ Donation and Transplantation · Organ Transplantation Techniques and Outcomes · Psychology · Surgery · Transplantation · Transplantation: Methods and Outcomes
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |