ABSTRACT
Idealization is perceived as a primitive defence mechanism in Kleinian psychoanalysis, and as a crucial developmental component in Kohut’s psychoanalysis (Klein, M., 1946). This chapter discusses three levels of an idealization of the reader toward the literary characters that have been revealed to take part in reading: (1) a paranoid-schizoid type of idealization, as illustrated in Paul Celan’s poem ‘In Memoriam Paul Eluard’ ([1955] 1972, p. 40), where Celan accuses his idealized poet of an unethical stand during the war; (2) a depressive type of idealization, as exemplified in Maya Bejerano’s poem ‘The Face and the Voice’ (2001, p. 17) dedicated to the Israeli Poet Yehuda Amichai, in which Bejerano attributes to Amichai the capacity of containment, inclusiveness and description; and (3) an idealization of the literary sublime, as demonstrated in Bialik’s poem ‘To the Poet’ (1890), where he ascribes to ‘The Poet’ the attribute of the devine and sublime.
