PRIMAL SCENE — A Centenarian’s Trauma

by Harry Finkelstein

Photo by Zane Lee on Unsplash

Sigmund Freud called it the primal scene. I call it a recurring nightmare that lasted for almost five years and which, despite psychotherapy and the passage of time, continues to haunt me some 80 years later.

I am 100 years of age. I have married, have four children, and been a widower for 40 years. I have worked in both blue and white…