Three Cheers for Madness
Three of Psychology’s Least Wanted sit next to my desk and beckon me closer: A graying Humbert licks the corner of my eye and throws me a pitifully seductive glance; an anxiety-ridden Yossarian repeats over and over that the whole world is trying to kill him, and an almost robotic Montaigne sits as a kind of mediating force between the others, his head snapping back and forth from Humbert to Yossarian while his hands open and close books so quickly one might imagine his purpose is only to get a whiff of each cover’s staling odor.
I need no special degree to deem them all nutcases.
What I know of Humbert and Yossarian comes by way of Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Heller, respectively, as they are the creators, surveyors, and closest contacts of the deceivingly fictional characters. Brilliant in their ability to characterize—to sculpt flat words into the kind of real live, dynamic human beings one might well share a cab with—Nabokov and Heller steal a rousing glimpse into the minds of two intensely confusing personalities and succeed in making us forget that the characters are only the brainchildren of the writers, and not the writers themselves. Oddball Michel de Montaigne seems to look on from afar, speculating in an essay entitled “On Books” about his impatience for a number of acclaimed writers and their works, while confessing his “particular curiosity to know the mind and natural opinions of [writers].” Knowing well that Nabokov is not the sex offender he appears to have studied so intimately, and that Heller is not the soldier living amidst the confusion he so thoroughly seems to understand, Montaigne would understand that “from the display of their writings that they make on the world-stage, we may indeed judge their talents, but not their character or themselves” (167).
But this is more than I can handle, as my conceptions of these characters as well as the writers who shaped them seem altogether disturbing. While writing out their prescriptions for shock therapy (the paranoid soldier’s frustratingly ambiguous remarks have earned him a bit more of it than the others), Humbert nudges forward his notebook of scattered words and doodles—a notebook containing his deepest thoughts about Dolores Haze (or ‘Lolita’), the twelve-year old girl with whom he has been completely infatuated his entire middle-aged life.
I expect to run my eyes over vile passages—perverse diagrams, even—reflecting his disconcertingly base attraction to the pre-teen.
Westen, D. (1998). The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 333.
Any biographical research of Bruno Bettelheim will yield results teeming with critical discretion regarding his work. Some general, highly publicized, and widely spread controversies shadow his greater contributions to psychology to an extent that his career has really come to be defined by the inadequacy with which he conducted his academic findings...
The anxieties suggest a psychological design with aspects of misperception and false perception to reveal a projection process. Tritt asserts that Goodman Brown’s evil is located in others, and Brown believes himself to be without guilt although his desires are still in his subconscious. It is a “vice-like grip with which such process is paralyzing, indeed terrifying” (Tritt 116).
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.
Humbert's main strength is his sense of humor. Nabokov is sure to throw Humbert's way all the American kitsch he can handle - mostly in the form of Charlotte Haze. His sly insults sail over her head, but Humbert wins our approval by making sure we understand them. Similarly, we admire him be...
Arnold Friend could possibly be a symbol of the devil. Friend tries to be kind and tells Connie he will take care of her and everything to try and get her to come with him. Oates says, “His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned down onto his throat…”; this could symbolically be connected with the devil. The devil would never be out in the open he would be in disguise. McManus also talks about how Friend is related with the devil. “Friend’s suggestion is that if Connie’s house was on fire, that she would run out to him, may also suggest symbolism. Fire being associated with devil.” This is a great symbol of Friend and the devil because fire is most definitely associated with the
Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where are you going? Where have you been?" 'runneth over' with Biblical allusion and symbolism. The symbols of Arnold Friend, his disguise, and the music that runs through the story contribute to an overall feeling of devilishness, deception, and unease.
The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.
Throughout the world children younger than 18 are being enlisted into the armed forces to fight while suffering through multiple abuses from their commanders. Children living in areas and countries that are at war are seemingly always the ones being recruited into the armed forces. These children are said to be fighting in about 75 percent of the world’s conflicts with most being 14 years or younger (Singer 2). In 30 countries around the world, the number of boys and girls under the age of 18 fighting as soldiers in government and opposition armed forces is said to be around 300,000 (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). These statistics are clearly devastating and can be difficult to comprehend, since the number of child soldiers around the world should be zero. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands adolescent children are being or have been recruited into paramilitaries, militias and non-state groups in more than 85 countries (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 1). This information is also quite overwhelming. Child soldiers are used around the world, but in some areas, the numbers are more concentrated.
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.
He calls it Mcfate. In fact, that Mcfate is the name of Lolita’s classmate and he imagines that control his destiny. He says “I had actually seen the agent of fate. I had palpated the very flesh of fate and its padded shoulder” (Nabokov 103). Humbert decides to take Lolita from camp Q and tell her that her mother sick and she stays in the hospital. He takes Lolita to the Enchanted Hunters hotel where he for the first-time rapes Lolita by giving her sleeping pills. Also, number 342 repeats more than once and its weird. It is the street number of the Haza home and the room number of the Enchanted Hunters hotel. There something also strange for me when Lolita says to Humbert “You Chump” she said, sweetly smiling at me “you revolting creature. I was a daisy-fresh girl, and look what you’ve done to me, I ought to call the police and tell them you raped me. Oh, you dirty, dirty old man.” (Nabokov 141). If that is ok for her! Does she really know that Humbert raped her or she just jokes? Humbert tells her that her mother died when she asks to see her. She cries a lot, he buys toys and clothes for her to make her happy. They stay in another hotel. Humbert says “At the hotel we had separate room, but in the middle of the night she came sobbing into mine, and we made it up very gently. You see she had absolutely nowhere else to go.” (Nabokov 142). Humbert takes Lolita away from everyone she knows and makes power over her thus she always need
Freud, Sigmund. 1953-74. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works. 24 vols, trans. James Stachey. London: Hogarth.
This book sets off with the ideas of 50 popular psychologists and comprises their development over a century in time. It explores and provides their crucial thoughts and insights into the personality, mind and human nature, bringing together their most influential concepts and theories collected.
Hergenhahn, B. R., & Henley, T. B. (2014). An introduction to the history of psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Freudian psychoanalysis is dead. Murdered initially in the manner of Caesar, with multiple assassins impaling the theory with their attacks. Simone de Beauvoir was one of the assassins, early to the regicide with a blade forged from positivism, existentialism, and feminism; but certainly not the first to deliver a blow. The echoes of the passing of Freudian psychoanalysis reverberate to this day, as does Caesar’s influence. The influence of Freudian psychoanalysis can be seen throughout western society, even in the assassins’ existentialist and feminist descendants.