Psychoanalysis in Regeneration
Psychoanalysis in Regeneration (Pat Barker)
Barker, influenced by the work on Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, used her character of Dr. Rivers in her novel Regeneration to explore the mental effect of trauma on the soldiers during the war. On pg. 31 of Regeneration, Barker directly references Freud's work through the character of Dr Rivers- “He had some knowledge of Freud, though derived mainly from secondary or prejudiced sources, and disliked, or perhaps feared, what he thought he knew.”
I feel that Barker’s choice of a real character, Dr Rivers, gives her strengths behind her ideas of psychoanalysis and builds trust between the reader and the character of Rivers. The use of psychoanalysis in Barker’s novel allows her to address the mental aspect of trauma in a more moderate way, compared to Owen and Sassoon, who use severe and grotesque images. Sigmund Freud’s work on shell shock was based wholly on the idea of “recovery of the mind” . This is something that is quite obviously reflected in the methods Dr Rivers uses with his patients in Regeneration- the use of therapy rather than the more physical and arguably barbaric Electric Shock “therapy” demonstrated by Dr Yealland further in the novel. Barker makes the contrast in the effectiveness of these two shell shock treatments particularly apparent through the nature of the two characters, Rivers and Yealland. Yealland, in chapter 21, uses demanding verbs such as “you will” and “you must”, when treating his patient Callan using electric-shock therapy. The “impatient” and physically aggressive nature of Yealland’s character- “He clamped his hands down to Callan’s wrists”- could represent how Barker, as a modern author, viewed the electric shock therapy as barbaric and unnecessary. Instead, she presents the more successful Freudian concept of Psychoanalysis through Rivers and his patients. In 1914, “most experts were extremely hostile to new ideas like Freudian psychoanalysis” , which I feel is why Barker was
Barker, influenced by the work on Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, used her character of Dr. Rivers in her novel Regeneration to explore the mental effect of trauma on the soldiers during the war. On pg. 31 of Regeneration, Barker directly references Freud's work through the character of Dr Rivers- “He had some knowledge of Freud, though derived mainly from secondary or prejudiced sources, and disliked, or perhaps feared, what he thought he knew.”
I feel that Barker’s choice of a real character, Dr Rivers, gives her strengths behind her ideas of psychoanalysis and builds trust between the reader and the character of Rivers. The use of psychoanalysis in Barker’s novel allows her to address the mental aspect of trauma in a more moderate way, compared to Owen and Sassoon, who use severe and grotesque images. Sigmund Freud’s work on shell shock was based wholly on the idea of “recovery of the mind” . This is something that is quite obviously reflected in the methods Dr Rivers uses with his patients in Regeneration- the use of therapy rather than the more physical and arguably barbaric Electric Shock “therapy” demonstrated by Dr Yealland further in the novel. Barker makes the contrast in the effectiveness of these two shell shock treatments particularly apparent through the nature of the two characters, Rivers and Yealland. Yealland, in chapter 21, uses demanding verbs such as “you will” and “you must”, when treating his patient Callan using electric-shock therapy. The “impatient” and physically aggressive nature of Yealland’s character- “He clamped his hands down to Callan’s wrists”- could represent how Barker, as a modern author, viewed the electric shock therapy as barbaric and unnecessary. Instead, she presents the more successful Freudian concept of Psychoanalysis through Rivers and his patients. In 1914, “most experts were extremely hostile to new ideas like Freudian psychoanalysis” , which I feel is why Barker was