S'elma Fraiberg
TWO MODERN INCEST HEROES
Freud has shown that the theme of incest in its mani–
fold disguises is ubiquitous in the literature and art of all ages and
all times, The variations upon this theme are produced by the cul–
ture and the forms and symbols which it lends to disguise, by the
degree of repression which the culture dictates and by the per–
sonality of the artist who employs these materials in his work.
But until this century no writer had to contend with the idea
that the universal dread of incest had its origins in a repressed
wish. Freud's discovery, the unmasking of one of the great tragic
themes of literature, has the effect of releasing a profound and
melancholy joke from the depths of the myth. The comedy turns
on the point that the object of moral dread is the object of desire,
an irony that does not easily lend itself to literary treatment
of
incest and one that gives little scope to incest as a tragic theme.
This is not to say that incest is no longer a tragic theme-it
will
probably endure as long as the human race-but a writer who
makes use of the psychoanalytic insight in a contemporary treat–
ment of the incest theme will find that the insight robs the work
of tragic import. An Oedipus, not-knowing, who is drawn to
his
mother by irresistible external forces, is a tragic figure, but an
Oedipus in a contemporary version who reveals the motive of
un–
conscious seeking of the mother has cheated us out of the
vital
secret, and in giving himself away his tragedy is diminished.
In this respect and others it can be argued that psychoanalysis
has inhibited the modern writer to a far greater extent than it
has
liberated him. The insights of psychoanalysis cannot ' be ignored
by
a novelist writing today-but what is to be done with them?
A
clinical insight does not stir old ghosts in the psyche and bring
forth unremembered feelings. On the contrary it behaves like a
