Cox 1

Kyle M Cox
PSYCH 101
Robert Bowen
3 December 2013
Freuds Oedipus Complex, Frankenstein, and Hawkeye Pierce
The psyche of the human mind is a robust yet fragile marvel; taking the mental
abuse of an entire lifetime, only finally cracking leaving us in the darkest of times. The
mind is one of the most elusive parts of the body. Walking along the streets of New York
City, one in every four adults you pass will have a mental illness, and one of every two
will develop one at some point in their lifetime1. These people dont look any different to
you and me though. Their antics, neuroses, phobias, and all other mental disfigurations
stay locked away inside their mind. Austrian psychoanalyst Sigismund Schlomo Freud,
more commonly known as Sigmund Freud, devoted his life studies to piecing together the
tattered pieces of the human mind. The way he put the pieces together didnt always
represent the whole picture however. Freud focused on a few key elements, leaving out
many critical aspects of the psyche. Freuds most well known work Die Traumduetung,
or The Interpretation of Dreams, focuses about the importance of dreams and how they
relate to reality7. Freuds interpretations can be easily applied and critiqued using Victor
Frankensteins dream from Mary Shelleys classic novel Frankenstein.

Victor Frankenstein, after years of turmoil and suffering stole the role of god, and
inserted life into an amalgamation of body parts, not solely human. The creation
however, turned sour. Victor had not created the desired replacement of his lover

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Elizabeth, but a monster, which will be referred as the monster throughout the rest of
the novel, as Shelley could not associate a name with such a creature2. Immediately after
creating this monster, his sanity began to decay at an astounding rate. The first night after
he created the monster, Victor dreamt of Elizabeth; he held her in his arms, he kissed her.
But no sooner after he was filled with joy, she turned the hue of death. Her corpse began
to disfigure and change into the shape of Victors dead mother. This clearly resembles
Freuds Oedipus Complex. The phallic stage of development in children is one of the
most important stages, and is where the Oedipus Complex begins3. During this stage, the
child realizes the physical differences between males and females. The Oedipus Complex
says that as a child, one should desire the parent of the opposite sex. Victors dream was
affected by the Oedipus Complex re-engaging. Victors mother replaced Victors lover
Elizabeth due to his subconscious lust for her. The Oedipus Complex has been
controlling Victor for his entire life. The second half of the Oedipus Complex states that
the child will rebel against, and fear the parent of the same sex. In the case of a male
child, the child fears that the father may castrate him to put him in his place3. Since
Victor was a child, he rebelled against his father. His father, being a traditional man,
didnt see the need for schooling, and demanded that he work for a living. Victor, to his
father dismay, studied the works of Agrippa, Magnus, and Paracelsus, and chose to attend
the University of Ingolstadt and study chemistry. Victor simultaneously angered his
father while distancing himself from him.

The creation of the monster begins to destroy Victors life and wellbeing. The
monster becomes lonely and seeks a female companion. While lacking the intelligence of

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a normal human, the monster knows that it is Victor who can deliver a female
companion. Out of fear and compassion, Victor begins to assemble the parts for a female
version of the monster. Prior to breathing life into the female monster, Victor realizes the
possible consequences of what he is doing. Instead of bringing the female monster to life,
he dismembers her, and dumps her body parts into the Irish channel. Of course the
question arises Why did Victor not simply make the female version sterile? If he can
breathe life into the nostrils of death, could he not simply keep the female monster from
reproducing4? Still, Victor feared the start of new race of devils [that] would be
propagated upon the earth.2 It is at this point that the Oedipus Complex faces a complete
reversal; the roles of the mother and father switch. To Victor, the female monster
represented Elizabeth, his mother, and pretty much any woman who had a prominent role
in Victors life. However, he now feared the parent of the opposite sex. And as stated
earlier, Elizabeth was a pseudo-mother figure to Victor. This meant that due to the
Oedipus Complex, Victor now feared and wanted to kill Elizabeth. After Victors and
Elizabeths wedding, while on honeymoon at the family cottage, the monster, who had
been following Victor since he destroyed the female monster, told him I shall be with
you on your wedding-night.2 With this is mind, the first night at the cottage, Victor told
Elizabeth to turn in after having heard mysterious noises in the cottage. While searching
for what Victor knew was the monster, her heard the shrill shriek of his beloved Elizabeth
being strangled by the monster.

The Oedipus Complex is an early life development. After maturation, the

complex should go away. However in Victors case, his traumatic experience with the

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monster triggers the complex to resurface and take almost complete control of his life. In
other cases such as in many Sri Lankan families, the Oedipus and Electra (the female
version of the Oedipus Complex) complexes stay with the children much longer than it
should, often into adulthood. Sri Lankan culture places huge importance on children.
Often times, the mother takes the full time role of caring for the child, which strengthens
the complex to taking a deep hold in the childs psyche.

All of the aforementioned rely on the validity of Freuds theories. To many

people, Freuds theories were far too biased. Many believed the basics of Freuds
theories, but wanted specific parts revised. Carl Jung disagreed with Freud on the
importance of sexual instinct in development5. Alfred Adler also disagreed on the
importance of sex. He said that people were more motivated by the Inferiority Complex,
meaning that our feelings of inferiority were based on physical problems and our
overcompensation for them5. Karen Horney disagreed with practically the entire
psychoanalytic field due its view on women as a gender. Psychoanalytic theory taught
that a womans place was in the home, and that if a woman ever sought to compete with a
man it was due to penis envy. Horney argued that penis envy stemmed from Western
cultural prejudices not scientific facts5. Erik Erikson also argued that Freud placed far too
much emphasis on sexual instincts. Erikson said that it was the social relationships that
held the highest importance in development. This meant that it was not sexual urges
towards the mother that was important, but the actual relationship the child held with the
mother.5

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Hawkeye Pierce from the television series M*A*S*H is a prime example of
Freuds theory of basic instincts. Libido is the sexual energy that which seeks to bind,
and join people together in sexual expression6. Eros is essentially libido but in a nonsexual way, and as such it is the binding factor in intense friendship and comradery.
Aggression is the polar opposite of libido, meaning it is the force that seeks to destroy
and conquer6. Hawkeye is a surgeon who was drafted into the Army during the Korean
War. He is stationed at a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit only a few miles
from the front lines. Hawkeye strongly displays each of these basic instincts. His libido is
most prominent followed by eros and aggression. Freud described libido as being
effected by a multitude of different sources, ranging from biological input, to personality
and stress. Stress would absolutely be the cause for Hawkeyes possibly hyperactive sex
drive. Eros is also very prominent within the MASH unit. The bond that soldiers form
during wartime has been proven to be amongst the strongest of bonds. Lastly aggression
holds strong in Hawkeyes life. He faces constant anger towards the Korean War in
general. Anger which he then turns on himself if he cannot successfully heal a patient.
These instincts are described as being part of the unconscious mind. In Hawkeyes case
however, he is openly aware of them, which may be in part due to the brilliance of Alan
Alda.

The mind is still a mystery to us even with the technologies available to us today.
Immense leaps have been made in the recent past, but the mind still remains an enigma.
Sigmund Freud was undoubtedly brilliant. Many today still use his theories as their bases
of diagnosis. Freud would often (more often than not) be seen smoking a cigar. These

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would eventually lead to his death but before that, someone once asked him what he
thought that meant. The man was referencing a possible lapse back into the oral stage, or
even phallic stage as the shape of a cigar is quite phallic. Freud responded, to the mans
disappointment, Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. This contradicts much of what Freud
lived by, especially Die Traumduetung as every part of a dream was supposedly your
subconscious finally surfacing. However, it reminds us that sometimes, being critical
about something is not always necessary, and some things may actually be exactly as
they appear.

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Works Cited
1-- "U.S. Adult Mental Illness Surveillance Report." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 07 Sept. 2011.
2 Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. Boston: Bedford, 1992. Print.
3 McLeod, Saul. Psychosexual Stages. Simplypsychology.org.
Simplypsychology.org, 2008.
4 Rieder, John. "Patriarchal Fantasy and the Fecal Child in Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein and its Adaptations." Romantic Circles Praxis Series.
University of Maryland, June 2003.
5Rathus, Spencer. Psychology Concepts & Connections Brief Version Belmont CA:
Cengage. 2013
6-- S. Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, 1959

7-- Freud, Sigmund S. The Interpretation of Dreams. Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1899.
psychclassics.yorku.ca PDF File. 10 Feb, 2013.