A KOHUTIAN APPROACH TO “A BIT OF SINGING AND DANCING” BY SUSAN HILL

Yıl 2015, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 104 - 114, 01.12.2015

Mukadder Erkan

Öz

Susan Hill is
an English novelist, playwright and critic. Her novels and short stories
generally focus on workings of the human psyche, particularly emotional
breakdowns. This study focuses on her short story “A Bit of Singing and
Dancing”, the protagonist of which is Esme Fanshaw. She spent her life as the
unique caregiver to her bedridden mother. After her mother’s death, she
inherits 6,000 pounds. She tries to enjoy newfound freedom, but it is difficult
for her to live without the control of her tyrannical mother, so she is always
haunted by an inner voice having substituted her mother. She meets Mr. Amos
Curry, a salesman and her would be tenant in spite of the voice’s rejection.
This man will change her life considerably. 

In this study, Esme Fanshaw is treated
through Kohutian psychoanalysis or self-psychology, where the self should be
understood from an empathic standpoint. For Kohut, the self could not be
properly defined, yet it can be the “whole person or, especially, the inner or
subjective person accessible through empathic attunement and listening.” People
have three kinds of selfobject needs: Mirroring Need, Idealizing Need, and the
Need to be with like-minded souls. If a person has the empathic relations with
his/her parents and friends with the acceptance of Idealization, these needs
are met. Such a person develops self-integrity, self-esteem and maintains sound
relationships with others.

In “A Bit of Singing and Dancing” Esme’s self and her
relation with her mother and Mr. Amos Curry will be analyzed through such
Kohutian notions as “narcissism”, “selfobject”, and “empathy”. Empathy for
Kohut is needed for personal integrity and tolerance. People such as Esme
suffer rage, emptiness, humiliation due to the loss of empathy during their
development.  

Anahtar Kelimeler

Heinz Kohut, psychoanalysis, self psychology, selfobject, Susan Hill.

Kaynakça

• 1. Basch, M. F. (1983). “The Concept of ‘Self’: An Operational Definition,” Developmental Approaches to the Self: 7-58, ed. Benjamin Lee and Gil G. Noam, New York: Plenum.
• 2. Bouson, J. B. (1989). The Empathic Reader: A Study of the Narcissistic Character and the Drama of the Self, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
• 3. Hill, M. L. (2002).“Susan Elizabeth Hill 1942-”: 136-141, eds. Vicki K. Janik, Del Ivan Janik, Modern British Women Writers: An A-to-Z Guide. Greenwood Press. Westport, CT.
• 4. Hill, S. (1993). “A Bit of Singing and Dancing”. From The Cradle to the Grave (pp. 119-141). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
• 5. Hofer, E. H., “Enclosed Structures, Disclosed Lives:The Fictions of Susan Hill” http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/hill-susan-1942/16/#gsc.tab=0 retrieved: 05.01.2015.
• 6. Kelly, W. A. “Self Psychology”, http://www.pdfdrive.net/self-saint-louis-psychoanalytic-institute-working-to-promote-e2569371.ht ml retrieved: 20.01.2015
• 7. Kohut, H. (1971). Analysis of the Self, New York. International Universities Press.
• 8. Kohut, H. (1977). The Restoration of the Self. New York: International Universities Press.
• 9. Kohut, H. (1978). “Narcissism as a Resistance and as a Driving Force in Psychoanalysis.” P. Ornstein (ed.). The Search for the Self, vol. 2. (pp. 547-61). New York: International Universities Press.
• 10. Kohut, H. and Wolf, E. S. (1978). “The Disorders of the Self and Their Treatment: An Outline.” (pp. 413-25). International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 59.
• 11. Kohut, H. (1984). “Introspection, Empathy, and the Semicircle of Mental Health.” J. Lichtenberg, M. Bornstein, and D. Silver (eds). Empathy 1 (pp. 81- 100). Hillsdale: Analytic Press.
• 12. Kohut, H. (1990). “The Two Analyses of Mr. Z.” P.Ornstein (ed.). The Search for the Self, vol. 4 (pp. 395–446). New York: International Universities Press.
• 13. Ridgway, I. R. “Heinz Kohut, Self Psychology”, http://myauz.com/ianr/articles/lect7kohut07.pdf retrieved: 27.03.2015
• 14. Siegel, A. M. (1996). Heinz Kohut and the Pyschology of the Self, Makers of the Modern Pyschotherapy, London, New York: Taylor & Francis Routledge.
• 15. Strozier, C. B. (1985). “Glimpses of a Life: Heinz Kohut (1913-1981).” A. Goldberg (ed.) Progress in Self Psychology, vol. 1 (3-12). New York: Guilford.
• 16. Strozier, C. B. (1997). “Heinz Kohut's Struaggles with Religion, Ethnicity, and God”, J. L. Jacobs (ed.). Religion, Society, and Psychoanalysis: Readings in Contemporary Theory (pp. 165-180). Boulder: Westview Press
• 17. Suesske, R. “What does Heinz Kohut mean by the ‘self’? Associations on a theme”. http://www.suesske.de/Kohut_self_english.htm retrieved: 15.03.2015