Sven Karposian (illustrated by Max Rugers)

In 1939, Wesley Dodds visits England while investigating the suicide of his friend Linus Benchley and his investigation leads him to Fawney Rig, the home of Roderick Burgess.

Dodds and his girlfriend Dian Belmont attend a party thrown by Burgess.

Sven Karposian is one of the many guests at the party.

Dian and her friend Annabel first encounter Karposian as they are walking through the house toward the ballroom where the party is held. He introduces himself as Doctor Sven Karposian, the author of The Id And Repression and claims that he is the successor to Freud. He explains his philosophy to Dian and Annabell by saying “For me, when I need to stare at your chest, I do not repress it. I stare. Yes? With the eyes. Yes? To repress, that is weakness and madness also. Perhaps later we can do more than stare.”

Later, Dian encounters Sven again and she asks him about his psychoanalytic theory on guns. He says that guns represent the phallus and only men are soldiers and the different types of guns a man chooses would suggest what he thinks about his penis. Dian counters inquiring about a gun that projects green gas that makes people fall asleep, referring to The Sandman’s gun. Karposian responds “I have no theories.”

Once the party is over, Sven Karposian, along with all the other guests, retire to their rooms for the night. In his room, unable to repress his own desires for the ultimate sexual experience, plunges a fountain pen into his left eye. It was everything he had hoped it would be.

Sven Karposian appears throughout Sandman Midnight Theatre.