Introduction: “The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i. e. make the unconscious conscious. “(McLeod). Sigmund Freud was the brains behind this theory. He believed that this theory would help behavioral disorders in his patients and with other people who needed the help. His theory consists of three areas of our mind, which is how we deal with our conscience. These three areas should be balanced out throughout a person’s life to be considered “healthy”. The three areas in our minds are The Id, The Ego, and the Super Ego.
In Khaled Hosseini’s novel , The Kite Runner, the main character Amir, easily reflects one of these three areas. Amir was in the mind area of The Id, he goes through situations in his life that are the primary source of his unhealthy conscience. The guilt he felt from his experiences as a young child is what led him to all his sources of aggressive desires. Amir could easily be considered self destructive. He imagines that by ignoring the situations in his life, that they would simply disappear. Amir was experiencing the part of The Id that has no comprehension of reality and is set to only one’s personal wants nd needs.
The area in which The Id works is operated by the idea of pleasure from things that fulfil our desires. There are situations in which we feel displeasure because those desires are not met. This area is the main thinking process that helps a person find their inner conscience. The Id is a function that can not be changed. It is carried out throughout a person’s life and can not be changed by experiences and is based on the idea of reality and ‘unconscious’. Khaled Hosseini is able to show this theory throughout his own personal life and through his book.
Background: The author Khaled Hosseini was was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. Both his mother and father were influential people. His father was a Foreign Ministry and his mother a teacher. During this time there was a lot happening in Afghanistan which led them to move to a safer place. “They were ready to return to Kabul in 1980, but by then their homeland had witnessed a bloody communist coup and the invasion of the Soviet Army”(Hosseini). Later on in his life they sought asylum in the United States. It was there where he finished high school and then later went on to Santa Clara
University to get his bachelor’s degree. According to The History website, he continued his education by going to Medical School. He stayed in California for many years to continue his practice. Later, he wrote his first novel, The Kite Runner. This novel was a reality that he himself and the people around him went through. He uses his own story but explains it in a somewhat different way. This novel, and others he has written, have been on to the bestsellers list and are many people’s favorites. The Kite Runner caught the public’s attention because of the emotion it brings ut when people read it.
It shows the struggles that many people went through during this time, and how a young kid had to deal with it. It reveals the power of love, relationships, and struggles that can be very relatable to many people of all countries. The book is set to reflect the history of Afghanistan over the past years and how strongly the people there were affected. The beautiful place that they call home is slowly being destroyed and there is nothing they can do to try to save it. Hosseini created this novel because of how personal it is for him nd he was able to express it in a way that made readers connect to the story and it’s characters.
He interpreted his reality into something that people would be able to understand and relate to. Everyone goes through struggles in life that create a different view for the rest of their life and Khaled was able to express that through his own writing. Thesis: Khaled Hosseini easily connected to Freud’s theory many times throughout The Kite Runner, in ways that readers would be able to relate to. The characters throughout the novel, have to deal with some sort of unpleasant situation. The connections to Freud’s theory is shown through the way that the characters live and deal with their emotions.
The three areas of the mind that are said to be the main focus of Freud’s theory are shown by how the characters bury their unfortunate experiences in their unconscious because they do not want to deal with the true feelings behind them. They find ways to only remember certain situations and memories that do not bring up the pain or hurt from a bad situation. Amir, the main character, and Assef, the bully, relate to the area of The Id. Other characters such as Hassan, relate more to the area of The Ego. They each relate to their psyche in a certain way. The Id is known to be one of the main focuses of Freud’s theory.
There are situations in the novel that readers can recognize the Id by the way Amir’s mind works. According to Psychologist World, ” The concept of the unconscious was groundbreaking in that he proposed that awareness existed in layers and there were thoughts occurring ‘below the surface. “(Psychologist World). Therefore, the Id explains how Amir was able to hold in all the feelings he was having about the situations going on in his life. He was only worried about his own satisfaction. In The Kite Runner Amir explains his feelings towards Hassan once he realized how much Hassan had sacrificed for him. I flinched, like l’d been slapped. My heart sank and I almost blurted out the truth. Then I understood: This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me” (Hosseini 105). Amir’s Id shows through this by how he experienced the unconscious of the whole situation, In Freud’s theory the Id is another version of the “evil” side of someone. Something that can not be changed but it based on the selfishness a person has in the situations they may be in. They have ways to ignore their inner good and let the self destructive side of them take over. Not only was Amir an example of a character showing their Id, so was Assef.
In the novel, Assef expresses his carelessness for the Hazara people. “It’s just a Hazara,” (Hosseini 75). Assef felt nothing but disgust towards a certain category of people. This goes deeper into the idea of how the Id is not affected by logic or the everyday world. The Ego is another area of the mind that is expressed throughout the novel. The American Psychological Association states that “Psychoanalysis promotes awareness of nconscious, maladaptive and habitually recurrent patterns of emotion and behavior, allowing previously unconscious aspects of the self… “(APA).
This shows how the Ego can aim towards protecting an individual and a society. The Ego is based on the reality a person is living. It considers social norms and knows how to act in the real world. According to Saul McLeod, “The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id” (McLeod). The Ego is therefore based off of the Id. They an easily relate to each other because they both represent a person’s self interest. In the novel, Hassan is very much aware of the reality he is going through.
He has to become aware of what happens to him. As a kid he was raped, and because of it he became depressed and could not get himself to come to the conclusion that what had happened to him was wrong. In the novel Amir talks about how worried Ali, Hassan’s father, was of Hassan and how this changed him. “Lately, it seems all he wants to do is sleep… ” (Hosseini 81). This relates to the Ego because of how Hassan struggles with the situation, and ecause there were no consequences for his rapist, Assef,this makes it seem as though it was okay.
Freud’s theory has been a huge part of helping people with behavioral disorders and other mental health issues. This type of therapy has helped people become more conscience of the things they do and helps them understand their wants and needs. People in the real world and in this novel, create an idea of how people should help their wants and how to satisfy that feeling. There are forces in our mind that try to hide the hurtful and unwanted memories from the conscious mind, which are defense mechanisms. There are many mechanisms that people can use to try to prevent these memories from returning.
One of those mechanisms is repression. Saul McLeod describes repression as ” unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious. Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego”(McLeod). This mechanism is simply blocking the unwanted from the conscious mind and acting as though it never happened. In The Kite Runner, Amir is using this mechanism to relieve himself of the guilt of not helping his riend Hassan when he was in need. “I had one last chance to make a decision.
One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be”(Hosseini 77). After the rape event happened, Amir was not able to deal with his emotions or with the truth. He used the repression mechanism and tried to hide these thoughts in his unconscious mind so he would not feel the guilt. Amir was constantly struggling to keep those memories hidden. Although people try to use repression to keep memories in the unconscious it only affects them worse in the long run. With time these memories will only become an anxiety that a person ay not be able to understand.
Conclusion: Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis Therapy theory was the start of a whole new therapy. The idea behind it was to show and explain why and how people went through these stages that he named. The Id, The Ego, and the Super Ego, were the beginning of a therapeutic way to help people dealing with emotions they did not want to feel. This theory led to the therapeutic solutions that are currently used to help people. The American Psychoanalytic Association talks about the true meaning behind this kind of therapy. the fundamentals of sychoanalysis are always present-an understanding of transference, an interest in the unconscious, and the centrality of the psychoanalyst-patient relationship in the healing process” (APSA). Therefore there are many parts of this theory that can be put to use while doing this therapy. There are people that go through a painful time that causes them to need this type of therapy. According to Journal Psyche, “… most human suffering is determined during childhood development”(Journal Psyche). The idea of human suffering happening often times during childhood easily relates to The Kite Runner.
Khaled Hosseini is showing how children such as Amir, deal with these feelings of wanting to forget a horrible memory, and the part it played in throughout his adult life. Amir was a young kid who only wanted to block out the horrific thought of himself not helping his best friend Hassan when he was in need. The areas of the mind mentioned in Freud’s theory and Khaled Hosseini’s novel are two ways of expressing how powerful the mind is and how people can try to block out memories without realizing that sooner or later, those memories will come rushing back.
