ABSTRACT
Power and belonging are illustrated in these romances, childhood fantasies of having substitute parents. They explain the dramatic appeal of Hamlet’s contempt for Claudius. Developmentally necessary, the child’s disillusionment helps to form the “ego ideal” as a standard within the conscience. In the Council scene, sometimes the King is played as a drunkard, which is a mistake—he’s just being a powerful father. Polonius’s relationship with Ophelia shows women as a store of value and medium of exchange. Laws, manners, and language define the hierarchy. A family tragedy shows Freud’s brilliance, but he felt the psychoanalysis was a failure. “Dora” had multiple physical symptoms and was suicidal over her father’s sexual triangle with Herr and Frau K. They angrily countercharged Dora was obsessed with sex. Freud had years earlier treated the father’s neurosyphilis. Freud intuited his adultery was causing her chest pressure and shortness of breath. For years Freud tried to cure hysteria; its symptoms were many and varied, often mimicking “real” disease. Like dreams, all psychological “structures” have within them several meanings. Dora’s condition, like Ophelia’s madness, Freud understands as “overdetermined.” He explains such madnesses by the “method” in them, using constructions to interpret underlying wishes and fears.
