ABSTRACT
Olivier’s Hamlet implies Hamlet’s procrastination comes from melancholy, idealism, and an unwholesome relationship with Gertrude. But Freud’s Hamlet has a distinct Oedipus complex: He hesitates to avenge his father because of an identification with Claudius. The Vicious Mole speech asks how temperament contributes to an evil act. Scholars wonder, did Shakespeare read Renaissance genius Michel de Montaigne? Mechanisms of approach and avoidance undergird human personality disorders. Five personality factors make up the universe of psychological phenotypes. Agreeableness, Emotional Flexibility, Extroversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to new ideas. Extremes of these traits underlie discussions of malignant narcissism. Psychiatrists would disagree whether Hamlet satisfies the official DSM criteria. Hamlet diagnostically resembles some aspects of narcissistic personality. His meditation in this speech is a window on his theory of motivation and seems eerily prescient of Newton’s clockwork universe and the difficulty deterministic philosophies pose for “free will.” Freud thought one of the coping mechanisms of the ego is the illusion of freedom of choice. Freud and Hamlet are uneasy about whether free will exists, or whether it’s just a necessary illusion. When Hamlet hesitates, maybe it’s because he’s compelled to decide as if he had free will when he knows he doesn’t.
