A Recent Case of “Dying Together”*

The subject of “dying together” has been dealt with by Sadger1,2 and Jones.3 Both agree that “The wish to die together is the same as the wish to lie and sleep together (originally, of course, with the mother).” Sadger emphasized also the homosexual component in persons with this morbid compulsion, while Jones pointed out the connections with necrophilic and coprophilic tendencies, with birth phantasies, and with vampirism. Both investigators will find ample confirmation for their penetrating observations in the case of Crosby which is here briefly reported. My analysis is based on his poetry and newspaper accounts. It was said that he had asked more than one woman to die with him. Bearing the date 1927, “Edition Narcisse” Paris, is a volume of thirty-four poems, many of them published previously, but here collected under the title “Red Skeletons” by Harry Crosby. The first poem is entitled “Symbolique.”