On black holes, psychic deadness and aliveness

ABSTRACTIn this article, the author uses the astrophysical term of the ‘black hole’ to describe the subjective feelings of patients who have experienced trauma in their inter-personal relationships, such as sudden separation or adultery. Such experiences are actually breakdowns that occurred in the past, but were not fully experienced. The fall into a black hole represents a deep regressive state in which the patient encounters a psychic deadness that he or she has tried to avoid. Presencing and therapeutic passion on the side of the therapist can help them to survive and confront dissociated self-states. Recovery from a black hole experience relies on physical and psychic aliveness, which are facilitated by the analytic setting.KEYWORDS: Black holefear of breakdownpsychic deadnessneed of truthaliveness Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsDavid PotikDavid Potik is a clinical criminologist and PhD candidate at the Department of Criminology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He works in a day care psychiatric department and in the Adelson clinic for the research and treatment of drug abuse. David has published articles on psychotherapy, addictions, and psychopathology, and authored a book entitled Psychodynamic Approaches for Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction in 2020.