Psychoanalytic Ideas and Shakespeare

Psychoanalysis is concerned with the vicissitudes of life: loss, grief, mourning, guilt and also with reparation and creativity, with death and rebirth, as is the work of Shakespeare. These papers link the Bard's universe to psychoanalytic thought and practice and show us how much both worlds have in common.

In today's world we are moved by Shakespeare's plays whose themes are brought to life with a richness and creativity that has not dimmed with the passing of time. Echoing Freud's fascination with Shakespeare, Michael Conran, Peter Hildebrand, Gerald Wooster, and Peter Buckroyd find much to feast on in King Lear, Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, The Tempest, Macbeth, and The Winter's Tale. The interplay of inner and outer world, inner and outer reality, brings about a rich tapestry of conflicts, desires, anxieties, challenges and resolutions that were as true then as they are now. Throughout his life and reflected in his plays, Shakespeare faced loss and death repeatedly. That his creativity was not diminished but was enriched by this, is part of his genius. Loss and the thought not just of death, but of our own death is something we all have to struggle with, as do the patients whose conflicts the authors speak about.

Part of the Psychoanalytic Ideas Series.