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HAMLET
IRVING I. EDGAR, M.D.
own father and with his uncle-step- oral conflict" (17) which Dr. Worm-
father, Claudius. houdt considers a general basic source
Ives Hendricks is in agreement with of creative literary expression. While
Freud. He holds that "... Hamlet por- Ella F. Sharpe (1950) implies the same
trays the Universal tragedy of the race thing, for, in considering the fundament-
cast by the genius of Shakespeare in a al problem of the playas "the unresolved
form which lulls the conscience of his Oedipus conflict" she states that, "Shakes-
audience, while yet it arouses their in- peare dramatized in Hamlet his own re-
most passions," (11) and that "the drama gression after his father's death. In ex-
tells the story of incest and patricide ternalizing the introjected objects in
with more disguise" (12) than Sophocles' dramatic form he delivered himself from
Oedipus Rex. This, he proceeds to em- 'the something in his soul.' He freed
phasize in the following statement: (13) himself through sublimation . . ." (18)
The morality of his audience is ap- Numerous other psychoanalysts echo
peased by the device of emphasizing these views, but it remained for Dr.
the guilt of Claudius' behaviour and Ernest Jones, founder of the psycho-
concealing the unconscious guilt of analytic movement in Great Britain to
Hamlet's phantasy, by Hamlet's tragic explore the whole subject of Shakes-
failure to achieve his murder; by the peare's Hamlet in all its meanings and
theme of Hamlet's sexual failure with psychoanalytic manifestations. His essay,
Ophelia and his flight to England. The "A Psychoanalytic Study of Hamlet"
motive of patricide is disguised by re- (19) is indeed a masterly piece of
placing the real father as object of scholarship that deals elaborately and at
Hamlet's infantile hatred by the uncle, great length with the whole problem of
though the mother is openly accused the psychogenesis of poetic creative ex-
of "incest". pression as well as with the particular
problem ansi interpretation of Hamlet
Fritz Wittels also considers that "Ham-
as an Oedipus' tragedy. He painstakingly
let is the great Oedipus tragedy of the
takes up the thesis that Hamlet is merely
late Renaissance" (14) and points out
an unusually elaborated form of a vast
that "Hamlet cannot love Ophelia be-
group of legends" (20) "the main theme
cause he has a mother fixation", cannot (of which) ... is the highly elaborated
revenge his father, cannot fulfill the
and disguised account of a boy's love of
ghost's command to kill his step-father, his mother and consequent jealousy and
because the murder of his father was a
hatred toward bis father." (21) Step by
deed which Hamlet, himself, has long
step he takes us through the play in the
harboured as a design in his unconscious,"
proving of this thesis and concludes as
(15) all leading to his irresolution, his
follows:
hesitancy.
There is thus reason to believe that
Dr. Arthur W ormhoudt more recent- the new life which Shakespeare pour-
ly (1949) not only agrees with the pre- ed into the old story was the outcome
viously quoted psychoanalysts "that of inspirations that took their origins
Hamlet's unconscious attachment to his in the deepest and darkest region of
mother accounts plausibly for the delay his mind. He responded to the peculiar
and a good many other puzzling factors appeal of the story by projecting into
in the play" (16) but he carries the it his profoundest thoughts and emo-
interpretation deeper along the psycho- tions in a way that has ever since
analytic road to the oral level and comes wrung wonder from all who have
to the conclusion that "Hamlet may be heard or read the tragedy. It is only
considered a very nearly perfect oedipal fitting that the greatest work of the
defense for the more deeply repressed world-poet should have had to do with
December, 1961 PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO HEALTH 355
the deepest problem and the most in- 13. Ibid., p. 298.
tense conflict that has occupied the 14. Psychoanalysis Today. Chap. on "Psycho-
analysis and Literature." Sander Lorand.
mind of man since the beginning of The International Univ. Press. 1944, P: 37'7.
time-the revolt of youth and of the 15. Ibid.
impulse to love against the restraint 16. The Demon Lover. Exposition Press. New
imposed by the jealous eld. (22) York. p. 2.
This then can be considered as adequate 17. Ibid., p. 14.
18. "The Impatience of Hamlet" in Collected
dynamics for Hamlet's emotional status Papers on Psycho-Analysis. The Hogarth
and his actions according to the analysts. Press Ltd., p. 205.
19. This essay first appeared in Jan. 1910 Amer,
References
[ourn. Psychology. An enlarged version
I. Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis, The In- appeared in German in 1911 under Das
ternational Psychoanalytical Press, London, Problem des Hamlet, und der Oedipus-
1923, p. 6. Komplex in the Schriften zur Angeuiand-
2. Ibid., p. 59 ten Seelkunde, Heft. 10.
3. Ibid., p. 65. 20. "A Psychoanalytic Study of Hamlet," op.
4. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. cit., p. 310.
New York, Random House, 1938, p. 310. 21. Ibid., p. 86. The italics are Dr. Jones'.
5. Oxford Lectures on Poetry, 1909, P: 357. 22. tu«, p. 98.
Sa. Shakespeare and His Predecessors, 1896, p.
388.
6. Histoire de la Litterature Anglaise, 1866 t. Resume
II, p. 254. L'auteur reprend dans cet essai l'erude
7. Figgis, D. Shakespeare: A Study, 1911, p.
320. psychanalytique de Hamlet. A la suite
8. The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare, des travaux de Sigmund Freud et surtout
London, Longman, 1860, p. 5. d'Ernest Jones, dont il s'inspire de tres
9. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, op, pres, il voit dans la tragedie de Shakes-
cit., p. 309. peare une expression dramatique du con-
flit oedipien a partir de legendes reunies
10. Ibid.
II. Facts and Theories of Psychoanalysis,
N. Y. Alfred Knopf. 1939, p. 299. par ce theme fondamental de l'histoire et
12. Ibid., p. 298. de l'art de l'homme.