Zweig's masterpiece "Letter from a Strange Woman", which is known as the "writer who understands women the most", has attracted much attention since its publication, and the films and dramas of the same name adapted from it have been performed endlessly, and the most well-known to Chinese audiences is the film of the same name performed by Xu Jinglei and Jiang Wen.
The young man watched "A Letter from a Strange Woman" for the first time, and was impressed by the courage of the strange woman to dedicate herself to love madly, and also because of her crush of "I love you, but it has nothing to do with you" and quietly shed tears.
But as "The Island Bookstore" says, "What we resonate with at twenty doesn't necessarily resonate when we're forty, and vice versa." This is true of reading books, and it is also true of life. ”
Therefore, when I read "Letter from a Strange Woman" again in middle age, there was no tears of youthful emotion, but instead of deeper thinking.
Gorky once spoke highly of the work as "truly an amazing masterpiece". So I guess Zweig shouldn't just write a crush story, so what's the difference between that and a third-rate romance writer?
So I read the original book many times, only to find that Zweig was not writing about love at all, he was writing about a woman who was self, superego, suppressed, dominated by the original self and crazy all her life.
"The id, the ego, the superego" refers to Freud's theory of personality structure. In The Self and the Present Self, Freud believed that the full personality includes the self, the self, and the superego.
The original self: at the bottom of the personality structure, completely subconscious. It refers to people's basic life desires and impulses, following the principle of happiness, ignoring moral good and evil, and doing whatever it takes to meet their own needs.
Ego: The self that faces reality, which satisfies the needs of the ego and controls behavior within a morally acceptable range, is the regulator of the ego and the superego.
Superego: Differentiation and development from the self refers to the concept that the individual is subjected to moral and legal norms in the process of growing up, and constantly restricts the behavior of the ego, so that it conforms to social norms and follows ideal principles.
Let me start with Freud's theory of personality structure to analyze the tragic journey of "Letters from a Strange Woman":
In "Letter from a Strange Woman", the strange woman only briefly outlines her family situation
"It was a shabby family of accountants, the father was dead, the mother was shabby, and the daughter was still young and very thin", but we can also see from the short description that this is a girl with low self-esteem and sensitivity.
Therefore, when facing Mr. R, she couldn't help but look down on others: "You certainly can't remember us." You may not even know our names."
In the three compositions of personality, on the one hand, the self must satisfy the original pursuit of happiness, on the other hand, it must also restrain the behavior to meet the requirements of the superego, so if the reconciling self is not strong enough, the personality structure will be unbalanced.
If the original self has the upper hand, it will be like a strange woman, crazy for love all her life, and if the superego dominates, it will become a person with a strong sense of morality and pure heart.
Strange women have low self-esteem and lack of love, so her ego is missing.
Because of her crush on Mr. R, she is jealous of the old servant who serves Mr. R, and puts all her energy into observing Mr. R's life, even kissing the doorknob he touched and stealing the cigarette butt he left at the door.
She knew that Mr. R was a frivolous prodigal son, and she knew that he changed women like changing clothes, so she did not dare to ask for Mr. R's love, but she silently loved him.
At this time, although the strange woman is self-deficient, her original self has not yet gained the upper hand, so she can still restrain her crazy behavior.
After her mother remarried, she planned to move to her stepfather's house, and the strange woman was distressed to learn the news, but she could not tell her mother her inner secret, and her inner "self and self" were at war, but in the end her self defeated the original self and left with her mother.
But throughout her life, most of the time it is the ego that dominates, and the ego is unable to play a role in restraining control, which is the main cause of her tragedy.
The original self follows the principle of happiness, so the strange woman's body reflects the obvious characteristics of the original self, especially the reckless actions of her returning to find Mr. R after adulthood, all of which show that her ego and superego are very weak, and the strong desire of the ego lacks the suppression and self-management of the superego, so she burns herself for love.
But a closer analysis reveals that the strange woman does not love Mr. R himself, but Mr. R's vision.
A sensitive girl who lacks fatherly love and her mother is cowardly, the environment is also very bad, and Mr. R's former tenants are fierce and ugly people, very poor and unqualified.
Nevertheless, with petty-bourgeois pride, she secretly despised the vulgar. So when Mr. R's old servant came to clean up the house, his gentleness and courtesy left a good first impression on the strange girl.
Before he met Mr. R, the strange girl was already curious and in awe of him.
The strange girl imagines Mr. R to be a gentle and amiable old gentleman, but when she sees that the real Mr. R is a gentle, handsome, lively and dashing young man, she is immediately attracted.
Her love for Mr. R was an imaginary passion, what Freud called infatuation. And the reason why she has a crush on Mr. R is because Mr. R represents a beauty she has never had. So she pins her deep love on Mr. R, but in fact she loves mr. R in the imagination, and the real Mr. R is just a frivolous prodigal son.
In fact, she has always known that Mr. R's woman is constantly and is the prodigal son of the love field, but she is dominated by her own self, even though she knows that Mr. R does not lack women's admiration, she still gives up her life and loves him.
Freud said: "I am an innate instinct, an energy system composed of desires, including various physiological needs. ”
In the two years she left Mr. R's residence, she did not want to wear a beautiful dress or go out on an outing with boys of the same age, but reveled in the longing for Mr. R with a deep affection.
She suppressed too many desires in her heart, so as an adult, she couldn't wait to return to Mr. R's city and stay under the window of Mr. R's house after work.
After her deliberate approach, Mr. R noticed her and invited her to dinner, and after a few wonderful nights, Mr. R abandoned her on the pretext of a long trip. But humble and cowardly, she did not dare to come forward to question, although she did not want to die, but also said: "I do not blame you, what I love is your warm and forgetful appearance, and what I love is your appearance of being merciful and not concentrating on one person." ”
This low-to-dust crush of a strange woman is almost morbid, but it also shows that she is completely in a state of self-denial and domination by the self.
From the tragic experience of strange women, the original self desire seems to be very dangerous, indeed, on the one hand, the original self desire will prompt people to make reckless actions at all costs, but on the other hand, the original self is also the driving force of life, and only when people are full of desire can they have vitality and strength.
After moving away from Mr. R, although the strange woman's life became better, she lived like a walking dead, unwilling to communicate and unwilling to play, until she returned to Mr. R again, her vitality was awakened again.
The strange woman who was awakened to the vitality, but completely lost herself, began to dominate the crazy love of life, she gave birth to a child regardless of the name of Mr. R, and even in order to make Mr. R's child better, she did not hesitate to sell herself again and again.
When I met Mr. R again, as soon as he seduced, she couldn't even take care of the child and followed him: "I believe that even if I die, when you call me, I can still get up from the bed and follow you." 」 ”
In fact, she always knew that Mr. R was the prodigal son of the love field of the game life, but Ben I desired to prompt her to run to Mr. R like a moth to the fire, so Ben I was extremely indulgent and ruined her life.
Such a woman who has repeatedly devoted herself, given birth to an illegitimate child, and has been a social flower, is a shameless woman in the eyes of us outsiders.
But the strange woman did not feel that she was wandering, and she always felt that her love for Mr. R was holy, unlike the love of other women.
The superego not only punishes thoughts and creates feelings of guilt and inferiority, but also rewards ethical behavior and creates a sense of self-esteem and pride.
Strange women feel that they are true love for Mr. R, not a vain woman who covets money, so when Mr. R can't recognize her again and again, she doesn't directly explain it, because her superego restrains her.
A strange woman who regards Mr. R as a confidant, in order to match Mr. R, stays up late to read books and practices the piano desperately. In the two years that she was taken away by her mother, she remembered Mr. R over and over again and used Mr. R's books to heal her thoughts.
But after reuniting with Mr. R, the strange woman did not tell him that she had been infatuated with him all these years, and she did not want to make Mr. R feel heavy, but only wanted him to have fun without burden.
It was the stupidity of a strange woman, and it was also her only remaining self-esteem.
And the strange woman will guard Mr. R's body like a jade" After being intimate with you, I feel that my body has become sacred, and I will not give this body to other men again." 」 ”
Although later in order to raise their common children, the strange woman became a prostitute, but for the strange woman, it was not a sacrifice, her act of being a prostitute was nothing more than exchanging her body for what she wanted, and in the process, her heart, her love, belonged to Mr. R from beginning to end.
Even if she later meets a man who treats her sincerely, she does not want to get married, and only wants to keep her free body for Mr. R.
The two times they met Mr. R, he did not recognize her, she was sad, but not desperate, because she firmly believed that her love was holy and selfless, and did not ask for anything in return. So with the only self-esteem left, he raised the child alone, and even if the child was seriously ill, he did not want to go to Mr. R for help.
After having a child, she transferred her hot love to the child, and in order to let Mr. R's children live a high-society life, she was willing to sell herself, only for this child who had the same blood as Mr. R to enjoy all the beauty of the world.
Because of this, after the child's death, her illusion is shattered, and her ego is destroyed.
A netizen in Douban commented on "A Letter from a Strange Woman": "When I was a child, I thought it was love, but now I found out that it was written about mental illness. ”
Deeply believed, this behavior of strange women who burn for love is not close to a pathological lack of personality.
In fact, a sound personality needs to check and balance the self, the original self, and the superego to reduce inner conflicts.
But it is obvious that in the life of a strange woman, the three parts of personality, the self, the superego, and the original self are not balanced and restricted by each other, but the original self has always been dominant and indulgent. So at the end of her life, she found that the love she had pursued all her life could not get, and her heart was broken to death.
A mentally healthy person is not a desperate indulgence of the original self, nor is it a strict suppression of desires by the superego, but the three parts each have the necessary strength to achieve inner balance.
Freud believed that whether it is the growth and development of the individual or the development of human cognition as a whole, it is the process of the self gradually conquering the original self and breaking the narcissistic state of the original self.
Therefore, we must always be aware of ourselves, explore the subconscious desires of the original self, and not deliberately purify our hearts and desires, nor deliberately indulge in madness, so as to achieve a unified balance of the self, the original self, and the superego, and avoid the anxiety and disintegration of the self to the greatest extent.