Clinique des expériences de mort imminente : du vécu agonistique aux formes extrêmes de symbolisation

Abstract

AimWe propose an analysis of Near-Death Experiences (NDE) in order to better understand the psychic processes that characterize them, their aftereffects, and how to accompany the people who report them. MethodOur paper begins with a brief review of the literature concerning NDEs and their different explanatory models. A phenomenological and psychodynamic analysis of research interviews conducted with ten people who report an NDE is then proposed. We aim to clarify the context of the emergence of the NDE, its subjective inscription, and its aftereffects by exploring the psychic life of the subject beyond the experience itself. ResultsNDEs appear as a specific psychic solution associated with different forms of traumatic experiences. The components of the NDE would express the process of symbolization of these experiences according to a gradual response depending on the depth of the experience. Several phenomenological elements of the NDE (out-of-body experience, life review, and encounter with a spiritual being) would be, more precisely, the consequence of the unfolding of the process of symbolization by a self-representation of the reflexive processes as well as a dissolution of the ego. These processes frequently engender profound psychic reorganizations whose evolution will depend on the transformational potential of the experience, the full effect of which requires a passage through an “other-subject” object. DiscussionNDEs appear as a complex phenomenological constellation of biological, psychic, and cultural factors. They represent an experiential organizer that brings together scattered phenomenological elements into a coherent whole. When certain conditions of the experience and its subsequent elaboration are met, NDEs induce transformational processes that sometimes give rise to subjective metamorphoses. NDEs thus appear as an experience of psychic reanimation that allows the psyche to be “resuscitated” in parallel with the sometimes simultaneous resuscitation of the body. ConclusionNDEs represent an extreme form of paranormal solution whose occurrence is favored by certain personality factors and by a traumatic context. During this experience, the symbolization process and the subjective appropriation of experiences left behind induce potential transformations of the subject in her/his relationship to her/himself and to others. Like any experience at the limits of the symbolization process, NDEs require an encounter with “another” in order to fully express their transformational potential. Clinicians confronted with these experiences should therefore accompany their integration with negative capability and openness.