The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet" Page: 109
This dissertation is part of the collection entitled: UNT Theses and Dissertations and was provided to UNT Digital Library by the UNT Libraries.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
109
and left me raging with a jealousy I struggled to
hide—but a jealousy of an entirely novel sort.
Its object was a man who though still alive, no
longer existed. It is perhaps what the Freudians
would call a screen-memory of incidents in her
earliest youth. She had (and there was no mistaking
the force of this confession for it was accompanied
by floods of tears, and I have never seen her weep
like that before or since): she had been raped by
one of her relations. One cannot help smiling at
the commonplaceness of the thought. It was
impossible to judge at what age. Nevertheless--
and here I thought I had penetrated to the heart
of The Check: from this time forward she could
obtain no satisfaction in love unless she mentally
recreated these incidents and re-enacted them.
For her we, her lovers, had become only mental
substitutes for this first childish act—so that
love, as a sort of masturbation, took on all the
colours of neurasthenia; she was suffering from
an imagination dying of anaemia, for she could
possess no one thoroughly in the flesh. (J, pp. 78-79)
Given this understanding, Arnauti writes that
"something else followed: if I could break The Check
I could possess her truly, as no man had possessed her"
(J_, p. 79)- Because, Arnauti writes, "I knew as much as
could be known of the psychopathology of hysteria at
that time" (J, p. 70), Arnauti takes Justine from
Alexandria to Europe to see Freud (J, p. 81), "the
famous mandarin of psychology" (J, p. 79); Freud is
also apparently called "Magnani" (J, pp. 81-83) for a
reason I do not understand. Arnauti writes that "Freud
. . . hunted with all the great might of his loving
detachment" for the name of the man who had raped
Justine, saying "over and over again: 'Tell me his
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This dissertation can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View 15 pages within this dissertation that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Dissertation.
Fordham, Glenn Wayne, Jr. The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet", dissertation, May 1981; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc330626/m1/115/?q=war: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .