Freudian Analysis of Pathological-Clinical Depression in Jhumpa Lahiri's Short Story “A Temporary Matter”
Abstract:
This paper is case study of clinical depression in the characters of Jhuma Lahiri’s short-story ‘A Temporary Matter’ in her collection Interpretation of Maladies with respect to Freudian theories of psychology and cognitive sciences. This paper commingles the Freudian concept of id, ego, super-ego, the death drive or thanatos and concept of Defences to explain the changed actions and behaviour of a married couple after the death of their child during child-birth.
Shukumar and Sobha are the protagonists in this story who undergo traumatic experience after the death of their baby during delivery. Their foundation of life was based on love and affection for each other but after the death of child their world gets shattered. The things that used to interest them, even the normal activities like cooking food, social gathering, particular spots in house and love making gets adversely affected.
Keywords: Jhumpa Lahiri, Sigmund Freud, Id, Ego, Super-ego, Unconscious, Death Drive or Thanatos, Defences, Clinical Depression-Cause and effect, Psychology.
Introduction
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London. She was born of Bengali Indian emigrants from the state of West Bengal. When she was two years old her family migrated to United States. Lahiri considers herself an American. Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island. Lahiri life was influenced by her father, Amar Lahiri. He worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island. In many of the stories her family members do become the prominent characters in her work. Lahiri’s mother played important role moulding the psyche of Lahiri. Her mother often visited Kolkata (earlier Calcatta) to meet her relatives. This was able to maintain the important link in the mind of Lahiri. Lahiri’s upbringing was in America but these frequent visits in her native country and native place led assimilation and commingle of thoughts and cultural heritage.
Psychoanalytic criticism is a type of literary criticism which commingles some of the method of psycho-analysis in the elucidation and interpretation of characters, plot, theme and motif in the works of literature. Psychoanalysis itself is kind of therapeutic procedure whose intention is to cure the patients of their mental illness or ailments. The traditional method of curing the patients of their mental illness was to make them articulate and express their feelings freely. In this method, the repressed dismay and distress surfaces and eventually that remains buried in the unconscious mind brought openly to the conscious level. This method culminates the concept of scientific theories such as the mind, the instinct and sexuality. Sigmund Freud (1856-1936) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method which involves conversation between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
Psychoanalytic concepts knowing or unknowingly are the part of our life. Even if we do not understand the technical jargon we are able to decipher and associate the behaviour of a person with his personality. Some of the concepts have readily used in our life that we hardly think that they are alien to us. Sibling rivalry, inferiority complex, attention deficient disorders are some problems that we initially face in our teenage and we are made to believe that as time elopes so do remedies. Psychoanalysis helps in the analysis of our scornful attitude, our abomination, our love and other such reactionary behaviour. Literary texts in the similar context are the extension and advancement of the human emotions and we comingle the two concepts then surely it will help in the analysis of the same.
The psychoanalytic principles developed by Sigmund Freud are called as the classical psychoanalysis. Classical in the terms as they were the precursor to all the psychoanalytical theories of the future but also they were also the best of their time. The theories propounded by Sigmund Freud were not stagnant and static or are universally applicable rather they have changed from time to time and eventually have evolved. Many of the theories that were claimed by Freud were speculative in nature and he hope that future psychoanalyst will make timely correction.
‘A Temporary Matter’, a short-story by Jhumpa Lahiri deals with a small yet significant plot. The story deals with a married couple, Shoba and Shukumar, Indian migrants in Boston, U.S.A. They have lived together for last three years and a minor fault in electric circuit leads to arrival of notice by the electrical authorities that for next subsequent day’s electricity would be cut for one hour around 8.p.m. Shoba is unable to realise the reason of timing of cut-off during the night time. Easily the repair work could have completed in the morning yet the cut-off at night is weird and absurd to her.
Her husband Shukumar tries to console her as he usually stays at home for the completion of his thesis and dissertation on agrarian revolts in India. Shukamar’s behaviour is depressing. Occupied by the thoughts of despondency and the state of despair does not leaves his mind. In the first instant he seems to be reluctant to move outside the house or even to check mails in the mailbox. He is not indolent or lethargic rather his mind is trapped the past. An incident leading to pre-mature death of his baby has left him guilt-ridden. Psychoanalysis helps us to understand their lack of communication and alienation. The cure of the same would help in the cure of the disgruntled relationship. Psychoanalysis looks in to the development of the certain personality traits as the outcome of the childhood experiences not only confined to the family space but also to various places. It also studies the pattern of behaviour by adolescent and adult behaviour on the basis of past experiences. Most of the clinical depressions are the direct effect of the past experience that remain intact in the mind of the subject and inability to reconcile with it further accentuates the depression leading to various aliment. The primary purpose of the study of psychoanalysis is to identify the problem and eventually help in the cure of the problem. The process of normalization of the subject is the basic motive of the study of psychoanalysis.
Death Drive or Thanatos
In an unfortunate incident, for the sake of job and dissertation Shukamar had to leave at an academic conference in Baltimore when Shoba went into labour, three weeks before her due date. Shukamar was reluctant to leave for Baltimore but after the insistence of Shoba he leaves. The labour took a troublesome turn as the doctors had to go for a caesarean as her placenta was weak. Misfortune leads to death of innocent child. In Freud’s theory “death is a biological drive, which he called the death drive, or thanatos” (Tyson 22).
Shukamar’s mind remains pre-occupied in the opening scene with the past happenings. He could clearly remember the happy past when his wife is pregnant, “Each time he thought of that moment, the last moment he saw Shoba pregnant, it was the cab he remembered most, a station wagon, painted red with blue lettering” (Lahiri 3). The recollection shows a feeling of guilt in his mind that makes him engrossed in the past incidents leading to death of their child. Shukaumar associates Shoba with objects, surroundings and past. These objects then become the major cause of their depression. These objects leave deep imprint in their mind and alternatively haunts them for considerable period of time.
Due to late marriage he is already troubled by the thoughts regarding children. He tries to cherish the imagination that once seemed alien to him. His life is not a success in terms of monetary stability and also it gets ruined after the death of his child. Shukumar is filled with anxiety and frustration of modern age and is reflected in, “Once, these images of parenthood had troubled Shukumar, adding to his anxiety that he was still a student at thirty-five” (Lahiri 3).
After the death of their child the already existing anxiety and frustration gets accentuated and the level of depression develops into modernist gap between couple that leads to lack of communication. Their married life is reminiscence of the scene of couples in ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot. They lived together, “But nothing was pushing Shukumar. Instead he thought of how he and Shoba had become experts at avoiding each other in their three-bedroom house, spending as much time on separate floors as possible” (Lahiri 4).
Sobha has lost all the interest from the married life and she reminds of the Typist scene in the poem, ‘The Waste Land’ by Modernist writer T.S. Eliot. But the cause of disinterested is different in both the case. While, in ‘The Waste Land’ the cause of disillusionment is due to First World War, lack of spirituality and lack of faith in each other. These two are disillusioned, depressed and dejected as the death of their child triggers them. Sobha, once actively participated in the daily and household affairs eventually has changed and lost all interest in daily or routine affairs. Earlier she tried to build a home out of house but “now she treated the house as if it were a hotel” (Lahiri 6). Relationship of Sobha and Shukumar has become mechanical. Her careless and occasional inter-course reminds of the Typist Scene:
“The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired. (Eliot 68)
Concept of Defences
According to Freud, death, loss of beloved creates frustration and leads to Defence. Tyson explains the concept of Defences as, “Defences are the processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious. In other words, they are the processes by which we keep the repressed, repressed in order to avoid knowing what we feel we can’t handle knowing” (Tyson 15). Her appearance is marvellous, Shoba is depicted as woman who has every reason to feel confident and she is described as, “She didn’t mind being jostled, even when she was pregnant. She was tall, and broad-shouldered, with hips that her obstetrician assured her were made for childbearing” (Lahiri 7). But, after the death of her child she becomes completely broken and dejected. She is unable to reconcile with the incident. This eventually creates a sense of disinterestedness in her mind and that is reflected in her routine behaviour.
Once she used to be lively and productive and used to prepare delicious meals for her friends and family members but suddenly many things have changed. Not her depressing behaviour is also reflected on her food habits it is only because of Shukumar who takes care in the preparation of dinner else, Shoba would sleep with “cereal” as diet. Incident in one’s life could lead to strain family relationship. In this incident no one could be blamed for the mishap but eventually guilt-consciousness engulfs the mind of both. A sense of psychological dejection engulfed their minds that were responsible for separation. All that earlier love is lost and compassion has given place to cold responses. It is desirable of a couple to stand in midst of adversities beside each other. But, here sense of loss over-powers their sense love.
After the death of child, they could hardly remember when they had last meal together. A sense of separation has also engulfed their sense of togetherness. They take food separately in their own private space as each one was holding themselves responsible for the loss. It is electricity cut that brought them together.
Tyson further adds:
“Defences include selective perception or Hearing and seeing only what we feel we can handle, selective memory or Deliberate process to change memories so that we don’t feel the past and even forgetting them entirely,denial or a make believe situation that the problem never existed or the unfortunate never occurred, avoidance or to avoid people deliberately so they may not trigger the memories or cause anxiety, frustration and depression and displacement or To aggressively shift anger from the painful and fearful object to a less dreadful object. ” (Tyson 15).
They believed that someday their child would occupy their room and eventually they attributed a room for unborn child. Their imagination led to decoration of room accordingly and they bought many things for their unborn child. The room was filled by posters and pictures of duck, rabbit and other decorative things but eventually everything was brought down by Shukumar after the return of Sobha from hospital. This room then Shukumar took for himself mainly for writing of thesis. They deliberately avoided each other and left no stones unturned for developing gap. Whenever Sobha tried to talk to him he left the novel and would take up typing. Sobha also avoided the place as it haunted her. “For some reason the room did not haunt him the way it haunted Shobha (Lahiri 8),” this feeling widened the gap between the two. They both acquire sadist attitude towards each other and hardly try any means to reconciliation. Shoba’s self-annihilating psychology makes her careless regarding food habits. Shukumar deliberately acquires the room they decided for their own child. Love-hate relationship changes with the changing circumstances.
According to Freud, “Love stems from the ego’s capacity to satisfy some of its drive impulses auto-erotically, by the attainment of organ pleasure.” In a marital relationship love from sexual relationship shifts to various objects that are common to both of them. Further he adds:
“It is originally narcissistic, then it spreads to those objects incorporated into the extended ego, expressing the ego’s motor impulse towards these objects as sources of pleasure. It becomes intimately related to the activity of the later sexual drives and, when their synthesis is complete, corresponds to the sexual urge as a whole” (Freud 29-30).
Attachment to the objects produces selective memories and selective perceptions. Shukumar and Shoba possess only selective memories of the past. Mainly the memories of death of their child remain dominant and eventually their actions are guided by the same unconscious force. Their attachment to their wishes, dreams and imaginations separates them from reality of each other.
Psychological trauma and tumult are depicted in the story. The sense of loss changes the relationship between the two. Shukumar tries to locate some source of light to deal with power-cut. But he is unable to find any; rather he finds some of the old candles that were left on his birthday in the month of May. Sobha was jovial and surprised Shukumar by calling around a hundred guests. She was five months pregnant then. They inter locked their hands in front of guests. The story juxtaposes the past and the present; past that was full of bliss and ecstasy has now grown dull and depressing. The sense of loss gains power over their psyche and they are left in utter disillusionment. Freud in his book Unconscious says, “We feel repulsion at such an object and hate it; this hate can then escalate into an aggressive inclination towards the object, an intent to destroy it” (Freud 28). Shoba was delighted in daily activities, events and everything gets completely dejected. Her depression escalates to a level that all the activities that delighted her, irks her.
When they took every care to avoid each other on usual days it is this ordinary emergency that made them notice each other. Her beauty is not marred to the slightest as when she enters the room lit with old candles and some ordinary food then she is described as, “Her stomach was flat again, her waist narrows before the flare of her hips, the belt of the robe tied in a floppy knot” (Lahiri 10).
Dreams and Unconscious
It is assumed that the defences in a body do not operate in the same manner when one is asleep as one is awake. During sleep on the contrary the unconscious is able to express itself in a better way and dreams are the projection of the repressed desires. The images and the projection in our dreams are not expressed in the exact manner rather they are the distorted in nature and they eventually these projections are the assimilation of various emotions and experiences that are either disturbing in nature or pleasant in nature. The former triggers several problems such as sleeping disorders and accentuates depression; the latter results in ecstasy and feeling of bliss, contentment and what not.
The death of the child is the outcome of the sexual union between the couple results in traumatized state of mind and this experience and self-inflicted pain of dreaming that they are the cause of the death of their child rather than the fate becomes the cause of sexual barrenness among them and eventually they distance themselves from each other. They prevent their physical, emotional and psychological intimacy as such intimacy could further invite one more possibility of pain. Pleasure of the body is marred by the pain of the mind. Their relationship is dominated by the fear that enervates and strains their relationship.
Dreams then become the distorted image of real experience and eventually they show such projections that are different from reality. Dreams accuse a person who is not actually involved in the repression or traumatized experience. Dreams create fear also from the person who is not the cause of the actual problem. Lois Tyson in his book, Critical Theory Today says, “Dream displacement occurs whenever we use a ‘safe’ person, event, or object as a ‘stand-in’ to represent a more threatening person, event, or object” (18). For example, a person may dream about being traumatized and flogged by one of the parents or friends, while the real culprit is school teacher, home tutor or such a like person. In such a case, the aversion of the person increases against the parents also. As dreams project the distorted image by and by it becomes the reality for the subject. This phenomenon only confines the person and the subject makes a reserved world for itself.
Tyson says, “Condensation occurs during a dream whenever we use a single dream image or event to represent one than one unconscious wound or conflict” (18). People fight various battles at various fronts in life and these various battles eventually lead to projections that are not real yet are effective. Abrams says, “The disguised fantasies that are available to consciousness are called the manifest content of a dream or work of literature; the unconscious wishes that find a semblance of satisfaction in this disguised expression he calls the latent content” (321).
The short story also gives an account of male imagery or phallic symbols, many writers have opted for symbols such as tower, swords etc are represented to give the repressed desires. The short story gives frequent account of ‘candles’ the image of candle is symbolic in nature. It suggests that there are no real candles in the house. It also shows the sexual sterility in their relationship. This short story also gives a vivid account of the female imagery which includes reoccurrence ‘coffee cups.’ Dreams are frightening and disturbing but in comparison to real life they are the safe outlets for our repressed emotions, wounds that time has inflicted on a person’s mind, fears that again if we fall in the similar situation it would lead to same problem. Sometimes dreams are also the projection of the unresolved conflict in the mind. Sometimes dreams become completely threatening and eventually that leads to nightmares. Sometimes the imaginary projections of the problems continuously haunt the mind and they become real problem however, remote these problems may be in reality. In the present story, the couple live in the state of depression as they cling to the misfortune of the past and are unable to come to the terms in the future, they also become sceptical about future and it is for this reason they are unable to compromise even in the present. The death of their child triggers emotions that are antagonist to their relation. But an accidental electric fault gives an insight into their present life. It also gives them new hope to build from ashes of their problems.
Culture and Unconscious
In the United States, multiculturalism is not state policy at the federal level, but diversity and assimilation of various cultures is common both in urban areas and also in rural areas. Migration is not new phenomenon; it has existed in all the civilizations. In the American sub-continent incessant mass immigration has remained a common feature since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Immigration to America became a common myth and the narrative became a common anecdote about the nation’s past. Such myths become often important national identity and an unconscious association with such identities becomes a common phenomenon. In this story their unconscious mind also fluctuates between the American culture and the culture of India. It is the Indian roots that allow them to stay together even in the midst of adversities. They do not get separated with the slight change in their circumstances. It is Shoba who turns out to be the precursor to cut the ice between them. She recollects the happy past of grandmother’s house when as a child or as adult they were asked to tell story or poem when there was power-cut.
Depression of Sobha is natural after the death of her child. He self-annihilating psychology can also be attributed as an outcome of cultural hegemony ingrained in her unconscious as Sociologist C.N. Shankar Rao in his book Sociology of Indian Society comments on the nature of women that is common with respect to family. Sentimental and compassionate they are by nature cause women to think about their children before any other thing. He adds, “Women toil for the good of the family and children even at the cost of neglecting their own health. Women very rarely complain about their ill-health because of the virtue of self-denial” (176)
Id, Ego and Super-Ego and Love-Hate relationship
Freud suggested three-part model for the psyche ramifying into ego, super-ego and id these pertain to the consciousness, the conscience and the unconscious respectively. Freud’s theory of id, ego and super-ego gives ample explanation regarding the love-hate relationship between two couples. A traumatic experience in the past is responsible for the strained relationship in the present. They show the symptoms of neurotic patient. Freud in his book Unconscious states the mental status, “The neurotic turns away from reality because he finds either the whole or parts of it unbearable” (3). Shobha and Shukumar turns away from reality that accidents are part of life. They accepted the traumatizing past as reality and fail to accept that they are together in life. Tyson asserts the importance of unconscious that, “the unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, these wounds, fears, guilt desire and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel we will be overwhelmed by them” (Tyson 12).
Peter Barry asserts that, “All of Freud’s work depends upon the notion of the unconscious, which is the part of the mind beyond consciousness which nevertheless has a strong influence upon our actions” (Barry 92). Freud stated the importance of unconscious in character’s life. It is not only the concept of unconscious but idea of repression that is accountable for our actions. Repression implicates, “forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic past events, so that they are forced out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the unconscious” (Barry 92-93).
Shukumar had spent much of his time in Concorn and unlike Sobha who has spent much of her vacation in India. Experiences Shukumar gains about Indian history are only through text books available for him that he is able to grasp. Shukumar laments that he should have visited India personally. The temporary problem that they are exposed to gives them opportunity after long time to open with each other. The temporary cut-off led them to involve in light conversation about the past. Shobha cherishes the happy memories of the past. Her family, mainly at her grandmother’s house used to involve in some activity during power-cuts. A little poem, joke or something like for the sake of entertainment. Power-cut in their house gave them again opportunity to think about the memorable past in which they have loved or begin to love. Their first meeting, first date and blissful moments all became part of reminiscences. Shukumar is able to recollect her past beauty, soon after the candles die, he is juxtaposing the past beautiful features of Shobha and the present features; based on cosmetics and equally less attractive.
The next they were ready for the power-cut eventually they decided to dine early so that power-cut may not disrupt their regular activity. It was after long time that they were spending time together. He could hardly remember the last time they have been photographed together. The only photo they had when she was pregnant, after the mishap they have avoided friends, family members and parties. But after long time they were together seated on pavement of the house watching the neighbours.
Not only the happy past strikes their memories but strained past also triggered their memories. In spite of being married Sobha carries out extra-marital affairs. The impact of western ideology of freedom and open-mindedness was something that they both suffered. Her affair with Gillian and an occasional outing she hid from Shukumar. But, the second night they both had something to confess. While, Shoba confessed about her past he also confessed about minor cheating he committed in an exam. The confession brings them closer as the trust that has been breached and depression that has accentuated the feeling of loneliness and sense of aloofness from each other leads to the development of intimate bonding again. The shattered world they have been accidentally thrown; temporary power-cut gives them opportunity to reconcile.
In the subsequent third, fourth and fifth night they discussed about various things like his dislike regarding sweater that she gifted her on their anniversary. But something importantly changed from the third night. From third night onwards they became more intimate towards each other. They indulge in passionate kissing in the third night. Their feeling that has changed towards each other finds final expression on the fourth day when they indulge in love making. Lack of communication and guilt-consciousness corroded their relationship to a level when lie the western couples they were living under one roof but feeling of love has become void in their life. Barrenness in their life was solely responsible for the shattered relationship.
In an unexpected turn on the fifth day, Electricity Company mailed them that the lines have been repaired. Shukumar that this was the end of their adventure but, Shoba was transformed from last night and everything seemed normal. She wanted to return to the happy past, when they were intimate. She urges Shukumar to stay with her; she even spares her visit to gym and decided to stay with her husband. On the fifth night even when the electricity was clear, they decided to dine under the candles. Darkness was somehow responsible for curbing the darkness in their life. Darkness gave an insight and time to introspect their feelings and their nature. Darkness gave them time to open their mind and they were able curb out their differences. The death of their children was responsible for the creation of differences and guilt-consciousness. Instead of blaming each other for the mishap they were in the self-accusation mode and were unable to come to normal understanding.
They wanted to hide the past and the best thing that they thought it was best not discuss the bygone days. But the lack of communication also led lack of acceptance of the situation. It was on the fifth night they unburdened their inner feeling about the child. For the sake of future, they wanted to keep the gender of the child secret, even during the ultrasound Sobha didn’t wanted to know the sex of the child. Even after the death of the child she didn’t try to know the sex of child. It was Shukumar who went to the hospital and reached early from Baltimore and saw the child. The last image of the child remained in the mind of Shukamar, he didn’t inform the gender of child to his wife and it was on the fifth night form minor to this revelation finally led to the reconciliation between the two. It was on this point they were able to come to terms with their shattered world. The feeling of despondency gave place to gratification and tranquillity in mind. Their tears efface and obliterate all the penurious relationship.
Conclusion
When it becomes difficult to realize and recognize to ourselves the repressed lacerated feelings, delinquency, fear, aspirations and unresolved dissensions and disagreement we remain suspended unto them in pretentious, impersonate and defending manner. Shukamar and Shoba had unresolved trivial disagreement among themselves. Sometimes in the form of breach of loyalty and trust to this; the death of child led to further deterioration of relationship over a period of time. Unable to share their problems with each other they feel utterly depressed. The fear of death also inculcates the feeling of loneliness and abandonment. The feeling of loss in the childhood or in the stage of adulthood due to accidental death of family member leads to feeling of abandonment. How could you leave me? What did I do wrong? Did I commit sin? Sometimes a person feels abandoned by God and is unable to reconcile with religion and higher power and alternatively with self.
A temporary electricity problem led them to open their unconscious mind to each other and the repressed desires, dreams and feeling are exchanged during the power cut-off. The conversation was able to cut the ice that engulfed their relationship, superego was subsided and conscious ego accepts the reality in the end of the scene when they both hold each other and cry. The silent cry spared the feeling of self-psychological annihilation that was triggered by child’s death. Acceptance of the dreadful past was responsible for the final reconciliation.
Works Cited