some references, as promised

So: the empirical psychologists who write on trauma that I mentioned:

Charles Figley, Strangers at Home: Vietnam Veterans Since the War, 1980; Bessel Van der Kolk, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Psychological and Biological Sequelae, 1984.


The Freud stuff:

'Beyond the Pleasure Principle', 1920

'A Note upon the "Mystic Writing Pad"', 1925

Also, Simon Critchley: 'The Original Traumatism', in 'Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity', 1995


The Derrida text:

Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, 1995


The other Ballard book:

The Atrocity Exhibition, 1970 (amazing book, very short)


The passage I alluded to from Burroughs:

Chapter entitled 'Pry Yourself Loose and Listen' in 'Nova Express', 1963


And finally, check out this remarkable (very short) story by Donal Barthelme called 'Game', in which two men sit in a nuclear bunker waiting for their relief, wondering whether they should kill one another and cradling each other to sleep as they sing Mozart. You can read it online here:

http://williamstallings.com/SS/Humor/Game.pdf

Best, Tom McC