ABSTRACT
In this small volume we used our close reading of selected Shakespeare plays to teach us about the human condition. We examined characters while listening to the ideas of Klein, Winnicott, Kohut, and Freud. Instead of a traditional psychoanalytic reading we discovered something quite different. Whether it’s the metapsychology of evil, positive aspects of revenge fantasy as restorative to the ego or self, glimpses of incomplete identification and anaclitic depression in an adult, or aging parents and their adult children. Our conclusions are not a re-statement of the above, but rather leave us with renewed vigour to encourage the reader to reread, re-engage, rethink, and re-experience one’s relationship with these texts. Our reading is by no means a definitive interpretation, nor is it meant to be. We have simply attempted to illustrate our way of seeing. Furthermore we would caution against any definitive reading of any art, by either an individual or a society. To read a text, listen to music or view visual arts is not actually natural, easy, or teachable. While one may suggest this is perhaps due to a defence against reality, this is not the case.
