The Medusa Complex: The head separated from the body in the psychopathology of negative affects

Abstract

This text deals with the issue and the image of Medusa as a polyvalent symbol. Its power has been analyzed from different sides, such as myth, symbol of dreams, attractive image and cultural ritual, symbol of possession of a complex for the psyche in the cleft between the head and the body. The relevant aspects of this reflection find their foundation in the psychological clinic, in the psychopathology of affections and emotions, petrified expression of anger that has not been processed, in defense mechanisms of isolation of affect.