Related Experiment Videos
Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia": an object-relational interpretation.
1Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, USA.
American Journal of Psychotherapy
|December 10, 1999
Summary
Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" is a psychological tale, not supernatural. The narrator's opium-induced psychosis causes him to hallucinate Ligeia's return after Rowena's death, reflecting his internal struggles.
Area of Science:
- Literary Criticism
- Psychological Analysis
- Object Relations Theory
Background:
- Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Ligeia" features a narrator experiencing the death of his first wife, Ligeia, and his subsequent marriage to Rowena.
- The narrative culminates in Rowena's death and Ligeia's apparent revival, traditionally interpreted as supernatural.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-interpret Poe's "Ligeia" as a psychological narrative rather than a supernatural one.
- To explore the narrator's mental state and defense mechanisms through the lens of object relations theory.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the narrator's psychological state and use of defense mechanisms (splitting, projection).
- Application of object relations theory to understand the symbolic roles of Ligeia and Rowena as "part objects."
- Examination of the narrator's potential opium-induced psychotic break.
Main Results:
- The events of Rowena's poisoning and Ligeia's revivification are interpreted as hallucinations within the narrator's psychotic break.
- Ligeia symbolizes the narrator's idealized "good mother" and spiritual side.
- Rowena symbolizes the narrator's "rejecting mother" and materialistic side.
Conclusions:
- The narrator's psychological fragmentation, characterized by the schizoid position and defense mechanisms, makes him susceptible to such a break.
- "Ligeia" serves as a case study for understanding psychological disintegration and the manifestation of internal conflict through narrative hallucination.