My first association was that this black dog stood guard over a long, dark entrance at the end of which stood something both desired and forbidden. The  idea of the vagina dentata  the vagina with teeth or the vagina that bites. My patient desired the prize but was also forbidden by his own moral standards. He was a married man with two children. This precluded him from having an illicit liaison. Thus speaks the super ego, the inner policeman. But this was in conflict with his more basic instincts (the id) that says, simply. “I want it.”  What was he to do? He couldn’t say “Yes” and  didn’t want to say “No.” So he comes up with an ingenious answer. He sets up an impassable barrier in the form of a ferocious Black dog. (A lovely representation of his super ego.) This works very well up to a point. So long as the dog is in place, he is safe. But if the dog goes, then what will stop him from pursuing his desire for this woman? He needs the dog alive which may account for why he never tries to kill it. The problems begin when his friend apparently succeeds where he cannot.But more of his friend later.

The other association that came up for me was Freud’s notion of The Uncanny. Particularly his commentary on the idea of heimlich or homeliness. The central idea is that homeliness stands for warmth, security, safety, etc. But the shadow of this is that it suggests something hidden and private. So a faithful black dog may be a family pet protecting its owner. But  the shadow can turn this feature into something dangerous and unknown. A ghost or demon or some other paranormal being. So my patient sees the heimlich of his own two dogs. The Black dog is only an extension of his own dogs. The ghost dog, like his own, his there to protect and keep out intruders. (And here we are again back with that vagina dentata. Something that protects and defends its owner.)

So, these are my own brief thoughts and associations on this account of a haunting.There are a few more notes to come but that’s enough for one reading.

What do others make of this story? And of the supernatural in general?