Alan Strange as an adolescent: a discussion of Peter Shaffer's Equus

Psychoanalytic knowledge of adolescence helps us to understand the protagonists of Peter Shaffer's play Equus. Alan Strang, the seventeen-year-old who maimed six horses, had undergone a retreat from oedipal wishes to narcissism typical of teenagers. His fragile attempts at achieving a sound sense of identity are undermined when his seeking of a noninestuous object produces panic and impotence. Dr. Dysart, the psychiatrist who envies his patient's passion, and fears hurting him through treatment, displays in an exaggerated way countertransferences often seen in therapists of adolescents. In addition, his doubts have some foundation in that the treatment he employs, catharsis, can encourage primitive defenses and the outpouring of uncontrolled, unneutralized drive derivatives. This is more likely to prevent adaptive creativity than the cure the doctor dreads. Finally, some technical problems in dealing with sublimations in psychoanalysis (which is not Dr. Dysart's form of treatment) are discussed.