“What We Desire in the Dark The Forbidden Self in Gothic Horror and Psychoanalysis “

This talk explores gothic horror as a symbolic language of the human psyche. Through psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, it examines how vampires, blood, haunted castles, curses and monsters often represent the forbidden self: the desires, fears, wounds and shadowed parts of us that we reject, hide or struggle to understand.

The main themes include blood symbolism, forbidden desire, the shadow self, the monster as a mirror of the unconscious, and the use of archetypes in gothic horror and fantasy worlds such as Ravenloft.

The central idea is that gothic horror does not attract us only because it frightens us, but because it gives shape to something deeply human: the darkness within us that wants to be seen.

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