Dark & Twisty

Recently, I finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  This was a story I hadn't read since high school.  After reading it, I had a prompt question concerning my take on the duality of the characters.  This led me to thinking about a variety of duality explanations.  (I previously talked about one taken by Showalter in another entry).  This entry is to look at the story from a very Victorian Freudian take. 

In Showalter's article on this work of ficition, she states that R. L. Stevenson was reading alot about the phenomenon of male hysteria. At that time, I mentioned that hysteria doesn't cause split personalities.  (Please note that hysteria doesn't exist as a diagnosis anymore.  We have something called conversion disorder that took its place.) The more intersting thing from this time in history, psychologically speaking, is Freudian psyche.  Freud came up with his concept of personality.  According to this theory, our personality is made up of three distinct parts: the id, the ego, and the super ego.

Now we are going to take a crash course in psychological history. (For readers who aren't aquaintances, I am professionally a psychotherapist and adjunct psychology instructor.  I hold a MS in clinical/applied psychology.) According to Freud, the id is the most primative part of our psyche.  We have it at birth and it is totally pleasure controlled.  It wants what feels good now without any delay.  It does not reason morally or otherwise.  It acts completely on impulse.  The ego develops by about two or three (during the anal phase of psychosexual development, where we learn potty training).  The ego is the overlord of the id.  It is focused on delayed gratification and acting not on impulse but on more logical and appropriate basis.  Lastly is the super ego.  This is the moral reasoning part of us.  It holds both the ego and id in check by establishing moral grounds for why we do things.  It is the most logical and well controlled part of the psyche.

Now, It is obvious from that quick and dirty history lesson that Mr. Hyde is the id figure.  He comes out, parties, kills folks, and is just down right nasty.  He doesn't reason things.  He acts mostly on impulse.  In Freudian idealogy, this makes him, evil, and Freud might even argue that id driven people are mostly evil.

If Hyde is the id, Jekyll is the ego.  He is more contolled and supresses his impulses, but we don't know why.  He is also the ego because he is overlord of Hyde when they are together.  He has controlled that part of himself for many years until he releases it.  We do not see the moral reasoning behind Jekyll and so that prevents him from being the super ego.

So who is the super ego?  Utterson is the super ego.  He is not part of the duality of Jekyll and Hyde, and in discussing duality, Jekyll and Hyde can only be id and ego, otherwise it would be multiplicity.  The reason Utterson is the super ego is that he is able to express moral reasons for his dislike of things and tries to rein in both Hyde and Jekyll, even when he doesn't realize that they are one in the same.  Now Freud would have something to say about this interpreation, but phooey to Freud. (All his theories have been disproven.)

In Stevenson's story, the id takes over and the ego is left no option but to destroy them both.  Freud would agree with this.  He would more than likely say a suicide was caused by the failure of the ego to surpress the id.  He would also disucss the lack of the super ego in that person. 

Now, did Stevenson know all about this when he wrote Jekyll and Hyde?  I don't know, but I doubt it.  Freud was still new to things at this time.  I really didn't read the story from this angel as much as from that of substance abuse, which is in Freudian terms, an id over ego thing.  The real reason I wrote this take on the story is because writers love Freudian theory.  I've no idea why.  The man was the biggest freak in psychology (next to B.F. Skinner).  But there we are.  Take this for what it's worth, a couple of shillings, mate.