{"id":151431,"date":"2015-01-23T17:54:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T15:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/espirited.com\/thanatos-as-a-means-of-shaping-the-soul-a-symbolic-interpretation-of-suicidal-desire\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:09:41","slug":"a-symbolic-interpretation-of-the-desire-for-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/espirited.com\/en\/a-symbolic-interpretation-of-the-desire-for-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"A Symbolic Interpretation of the Desire for Suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

After learning about the cause of El Collie\u2019s death<\/a>, I felt the need to know more about the subject of suicide and its connection with the \u201cdark night of the soul<\/a>.\u201d The processes of spiritual transformation are extraordinarily difficult; therefore, when the moment comes to descend into the depths of the human psyche, it is crucial to be well informed. This is also the purpose of the present article.<\/p>\n

James Hillman on Suicide and the Soul<\/h2>\n

I was seeking an understanding of suicide that would not be banal, and I found it in James Hillman\u2014a post-Jungian analyst, the founder of archetypal psychology, and the author of the well-known book The Soul\u2019s Code<\/em><\/a>. He devoted an entire book to this subject entitled Suicide and the Soul<\/em>, published in 1964. I managed to find its core ideas in an essay by Sylvester Wojtkowski from 2012, written as a tribute to Hillman\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Here is what Wojtkowski writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Suicide and the Soul (1964), Hillman explores the special relationship between soul and death in a provocative and profound way. As early as 1964, he had begun to express his unique critical style and radically fearless thinking. Even now, almost fifty years later, we continue to appreciate how deep and fundamental his analysis of suicide was. He sees death as a permanent inhabitant of the psyche, and Thanatos as a formative agent of the soul:\u00a0<\/em>\u2018The experience of death destroys the old order and, since analysis is a prolonged \u201cnervous breakdown\u201d (and also a synthesis that goes along with it), it signifies dying\u2019 (Suicide and the Soul, p. 68).<\/em><\/p>\n

In the analysis of the suicidal patient, he recommends valuing the person\u2019s soul more highly than life:\u00a0<\/em>\u2018the loss of soul, not the loss of life, should be the analyst\u2019s greatest fear\u2019 (p. 83).<\/em><\/p>\n

Positioned in the middle\u2014simultaneously experiencing and observing\u2014the analyst occupies a unique position with regard to suicide:\u00a0<\/em>\u2018he is able to understand suicide better than the one who wishes to commit it\u2019 (p. 53).<\/em><\/p>\n

Hillman advocates the development of a conscious philosophy of death; he demonstrates that death and life are not psychological opposites and shows that\u00a0<\/em>\u2018every act that keeps us away from death simultaneously keeps us away from life\u2019 (p. 61).<\/em><\/p>\n

He believes that suicide is something natural\u2014<\/em>\u2018a possibility of our nature, a choice open to every human psyche\u2019 (p. 63).<\/em><\/p>\n

The task of the analyst is to help the person understand such a choice\u2014which may be far more essential for his individuality\u2014rather than to protect him from it. He understands suicide as\u00a0<\/em>\u2018an attempt to pass from one reality to another by violent means through death\u2019 (p. 68).<\/em><\/p>\n

Consequently, fantasies of suicide aim to separate the ego from its habitual way of seeing things and to direct it toward standing face to face with the soul. In order to be faithful to the soul, the analyst must follow the wish for death. The analyst must enter analytic despair:\u00a0<\/em>\u2018to hope for nothing, to expect nothing, to demand nothing\u2019 (p. 88).<\/em><\/p>\n

By passing through this Dantean gate, in which he abandons all hope and accepts\u00a0<\/em>\u2018the patient\u2019s experience that nothing more can be done\u2026 he offers nothing beyond the experience as such\u2019 (p. 89).<\/em><\/p>\n

To maintain such an attitude is extremely difficult; nevertheless, the analyst must remain faithful to hopelessness and to the analytic despair in which he accompanies the patient in the experience of death:\u00a0<\/em>\u2018at this moment the analyst plays the role of a true psychopomp (\u2217\u2217)\u2026 By protecting him here and now, the analyst nevertheless does the best he can to prevent actual death. By fully entering the other\u2019s position, the other no longer feels isolated.\u2019 (pp. 92\u201393)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n