Sigmund Freud & Rumer Godden - Paradigms of Wish Fulfillment

In Freud's influential book "The Interpretation of Dreams", (English translation by A. A. Brill) the third chapter is devoted to dream as wish fulfillment. Among the profuse cases described, two examples of a little girl (Freud's own daughter Anna at different ages) may be quoted, as further on in this essay, Rumer Godden's books (which were written for little girls) are analysed.

In the first case, when Anna was three & a quarter years of age, she was taken on her first boat ride, which was too short for her liking. She didn't want to get out & cried bitterly. Next morning, she said "Last night, I was sailing on the Lake." (In her dream of course).

In the second case, Anna, now eight & a half years of age was taken with her younger brother & a neighbour's well behaved twelve year old son Emil on a trip. When the children were ahead, Freud himself overheard Emil say to the younger children "Let us wait for "Papa" & "Mama", referring to Herr & Frau Freud in an affectionate way. On their way back at the railway station, Anna asked for chocolates from the vending machine, which was refused by her mother. Next morning, Anna related her night's dream that Emil was living in their house & her mother came & threw a boxful of chocolates in her room. Because the previous day Emil had referred to her parents as "Papa" & "Mama",  Anna had adopted him into her family in her dream & her un-fulfilled longing for chocolates was also satisfied.

Rumer Godden (1907-1998) was a popular British author, who wrote many children's books, especially about dolls. Seven of those books have been published as an Omnibus edition by  Macmillan. As obviously the dolls can't move or talk, they communicate with each other by thoughts & try to influence the children with whom they come in contact by fervently wishing their needs. Godden makes no secret of her opinion that dolls need children as much as children need dolls. Whenever they are in a quandary, dolls advise each other to wish harder & these being children's books, their wishes eventually come true.

If in Freud, wishes are fulfilled in dreams, in Godden's Doll books, the dolls wishes are fulfilled in real life.

Similarities between Krishna & Christ

Before the birth of Krishna, the evil tyrant Kamsa, who had imprisoned his own father to ascend the throne, was warned that a child born to his sister Devaki would end his rule & life. So he imprisoned her & her husband & killed all their babies as soon as they were born. But when Krishna was born, due to supernatural events, he escaped & later the prophecy came true.

According to the Gospel according to St. Mathew, (2:16-18), King Herod of Jerusalem also had a premonition about the new King of Jews who would be born. When the Magi realised the birth of Christ, they went to King Herod himself to enquire about it & were directed by Herod to inform him on their way back. But after viewing the Infant, they were warned not to inform Herod in a dream. When Herod realised he had been cheated by the Magi, he calculated that it was not more than 2 years since the Infant was born. As unlike Kamsa, Herod did not know the parents of his usurper, he ordered all infants under 2 years in his realm to be killed. But the Infant with his parents had escaped. But before the advent of both Krishna & Christ, there were scenes of infanticide.

The dalliance of Krishna with the milkmaids of Brindavan obviously has to be taken metaphorically as otherwise he would be just a womaniser & not divine (though Jayadeva has been explicit in depicting it as romantic in his "Gita Govinda.") In fiction, Dan Brown outrageously suggests Christ married Magdalene & had children, similar reasons suggest, if so Christ would not be divine. But the Catholic Nuns are known as "The Brides of Christ" & the day they join the order, dressed like brides, is the "wedding day" with the Divine, paralleling the milkmaids spiritual union with Krishna. In fact when they join the convent, a token "dowry" also has to be paid by their fathers to the convent, to be returned if the Sisters leave the order for any reason.

Krishna also had a painful death, being pierced by the arrow of a hunter, Christ being crucified later.

Collateral damage of Luther & Freud

The Protestant Reformation of Christianity by Martin Luther was triggered by the widespread corruption in the Catholic Church. To that extent, it was welcome & necessary. But so many desirable things also got washed away in the wave of Reformation, like the baby being thrown out  with the bathwater.

The foremost casuality was the mandatory celibacy of the people dedicating their life to the Church. Even Christine de Pizan (Book of the City of Ladies) who was a widow with three children, listed chastity as the foremost virtue of a woman. When one enters a religious order, the body & mind should be offered to God 24x7. If one is married, it is simply not possible as at least a modicum of time has to be devoted to the family.

The other was the reduction of direct communication with God or Mysticism, which was prevalent in the early days of Christianity (also among many Hindu Saints). The emphasis shifted towards service activities like education & healthcare (which as Sri Ramakrishna pointed out were only means to the end, which is God realisation.) So spirituality got watered down with worldliness.

Though Sigmund Freud was not first acclaimed by his peers, he was supported by his patients, who were helped by his interpretation of their dreams. But his use of Sophocles' play to explain the attraction of sons towards their mothers was ill-chosen. Oedipus did not have the slightest wish to either kill his father or marry his mother at all. Both events came about completely accidentally without his prior knowledge. So giving that complex the name of the unfortunate king is nothing short of ridiculous because it ascribes a conscious wish to an accidental event.

Worse is the portrayal of even much earlier events, historical or fictional, which had nothing to do with them, in the light of modern psychology. For example, Dickens writes in his masterpiece "David Copperfield" that he married his first wife Dora, when she was very young. So he would call her as his "child-wife" as a term of endearment. Implying that David was a paedophile based on this remark (as is done by some modern critics) is just monstrous. Like this, most works (conceived quite innocently) are being viewed through the (distorting?) prism of post-Freudian viewpoint & many perversions are being read into them, as if these modern aberrations have been there since times immemorial.

The misunderstood Gertrude Morel

In D. H. Lawrence's famous autobiographical novel, "Sons & Lovers", the mother Gertrude is widely seen as an object of Oedipal fixation by her sons, William & Paul. William gets married, moves away & passes away soon also. Paul, a gifted artist, is emotionally close to his mother, whose husband was not culturally equal to her, being a coal miner with some physical charm in his youth.

But Paul also is attracted to first Miriam & then Clara. In a moving scene, Gertrude cries in a whimpering voice, so unlike her own, that Paul writhed in agony. "I can't bear it. I could let another woman - but not her. Miriam would leave me no room, not a bit of room. And she exults so in taking you from me - she is not like ordinary girls."

This makes it evident that Gertrude was not being possessive, but only afraid of Miriam being so.

Later Lawrence writes, "(Gertrude) wished so much that Paul would fall in love with a girl equal to be his mate - educated & strong. He seemed to like Clara. At any rate that feeling was wholesome. Gertrude prayed for him that he might not be wasted. That was all her prayer - not for his soul or his righteousness, but that he might not be wasted. And while he slept, for hours & hours she thought & prayed for him."

Where is the question of maternal possessiveness or Oedipal fixation in this, where a mother prays for her son marrying a wife who will allow him to share his love with others also?

Authors as critics

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), (author of "A room of one's own") at the beginning of her career wrote some (anonymous) reviews for the Times Literary Supplement. They are published in book form as "Genius & Ink." Though not easy to read & demanding the reader's prior knowledge of the authors discussed, it provides unusual insights into their work. Though enthusiastic about Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Montaigne, Joseph Conrad & Thomas Hardy, she is less so about the diary of John Evelyn, a contemporary of the immortal Samuel Pepys. Like Hans Christian Andersen's child in the story "Emperor's New Clothes", she writes (James Joyce's) " Ulysses was a memorable catastrophe - immense in daring,
terrific in disaster."

C. S .Lewis (1898-1963), author of the popular "Narnia Chronicles" discusses "The Reading Life." First he confesses regarding (the now not so famous) George MacDonald as his master. He writes aphoristically "You couldn't make me like Henry James or dislike Jane Austen whatever you did." He found Dante's "The Divine Comedy", the greatest poetry & Alexander Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" disgusting with no connection to human nature or mother Earth. About children's literature, he says "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten, which is not equally (& often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty."

Loving & selfish wives

In the legend of Savitri & Satyavan, even though Satyavan was fated for an early death, Savitri knowingly marries him & when Death comes to claim him, impressed Death  with her austerities & erudition & succeeds in extracting the boon of life to her husband.

Sri Ramakrishna, in order to remove uxoriousness from spiritual aspirants, for whom it would be a block in their path, tells the parable of a man who died. His grieving wife was offered the choice of reviving him with the proviso that she has to sacrifice her own life. She refused, citing specious reasons.

In this connection, it may be relevant to quote Sam Weller's father's famous advice to his son to "beware of widders!", one of whom was so eager to replace her dead husband that she had enticed (Sr.Weller) to his great discomfiture, in Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers."

In a curious twist to the above instances, Euripides' "Alcestis" tells of the eponymous heroine saving her husband Admetus' life at the cost of her own, but with many provisos, one of which is "no feasting" soon after her death. But Admetus's bosom friend Heracles arrives soon after, ignorant of the tragedy. Admetus, not wishing to impose his grief on his friend, orders silence on his staff & welcomes Heracles as usual. But the servants are grieving for their mistress & on pressed, confess the truth to Heracles. He, deeply distressed at his untimely arrival, proceeds to the underworld, confronts Death,  brings back Alcestis alive & presents her to her husband.