Download The Metamorphosis: Misleading Assumptions and Family Dynamics in Kafka's Novella and more Lecture notes Literature in PDF only on Docsity!
Narrative Lessons for the Psychotherapist
Kafka's The Metamorphosis
JEROME S. GANS, M.D.*
Psychotherapists can learn a great deal about their craft from reading literary fiction. This paper will utilize Franz Kafka's short story, The Metamorphosis, to describe and discuss some of the parallels between the therapist-reader's relationship with a work of fiction and a therapist's psychotherapeutic relationship with his patient.
There are many parallels between a reader's relationship with a work of fiction and a therapist's psychotherapeutic relationship with his patient. To both encounters each party brings an inner world. 1 The inner world of the author finds expression in the narrator and the interactions of the charac- ters in the story. The reader brings his life experience and culture, present life situation, strengths and limitations, and idiosyncratic blind spots. The interaction between a great literary work and the almost infinite variety of human experience of its readership allows the story to be read at many different levels. Although the text, to a certain degree, will insure a commonalty of experience, no two readers take away the exact same experience from a reading-and rereading-of a literary masterpiece. A very similar argument could be made regarding the treatment of a given patient. The same patient seeing five hypothetical therapists could conceiv- ably undergo five very different treatments. This report focuses on two dimensions of literary fiction that are instructive for the psychotherapist: how the story is told, and the effect of
the telling on the therapist-reader. We will be looking at the effect the
author's story has on the therapist-reader and comparing it to the effect that the patient's narrative has on the therapist. ** It is the thesis of this paper that the limiting factors in both endeavors are the capacity for, and *Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Clinical Associate in Psychia- try, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. Mailing address: 55 Cleveland Road, Wellesley, MA
**The author is aware of but does not emphasize the many differences between the ways authors and patients tell their stories. Similarly, there are many differences between the written and spoken word, especially the context, tone, cadence, and unspoken dimension of the spoken word. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTIIERAPY, Vol. 52, No.3, Summer 1998 352
Lessons from Kafka's The Metamorphosis
openness to, introspection, self-confrontation, and emotional honesty that the therapist-reader and the therapist bring to their respective endeavors.
In particular, this report will utilize Franz Kafka's short story, The
Metamorphosis,** to teach about narrative knowledge. As Charon, Banks et
al.' have stated: Evaluating patients requires the skills that are exercised by the reader: to respect language, to adopt alien points of view, to integrate isolated phenomena
(be they physical findings or metaphors) so that they suggest meaning... (p.
601).
Kafka, as omniscient narrator in The Metamorphosis, tells a tale that
requires the reader's dynamic involvement. The story abounds with mislead- ing assumptions, perversion of traditional ideas, intricacies of deception, projective identification in families-all tinged with irony and paradox. Just as the therapist must listen to the patient's story on its many reverberat-
ing levels, the therapist-reader of The Metamorphosis must constantly
suspend judgment around "knowing," question assumptions, confront inconsistencies, and welcome complexity. The purpose of this report is to assist in the clinician's refinement of those skills in which the dynamic reading of fiction and competent patient evaluation, formulation, and treatment overlap. What Literature Offers the Psychotherapist The use of literature to heighten therapist sensitivity has a long his- and has much to recommend it. Literary masterpieces defy pat answers and do not yield to facile psychiatric interpreting or superficial diagnosing. The provision of a compelling object of displacement for study and concern frees up the reader-therapist to disclose unself-consciously those same attitudes which, if elicited by a clinical situation, might be suppressed or, at least, not discussed as openly. Rereading the same story provides a sustained, contemplative opportunity to grasp elusive and complex intrapsychic and interpersonal experience-an opportunity that may realize greater significance in this era of shortened hospital stays, limited insurance payments for long-term therapy, and the ascendancy of the biological therapies. Through an appreciation of the craft of storytell- ing, psychotherapists can arrive at a deeper understanding of their patients' narrative style and its effect on them.' Patients, often unconsciously, mold the therapist's attitudes toward the material they provide just as the author through selection, juxtaposition, timing, omission, irony, and other devices influences the reader's reaction to the characters and events portrayed.
*A summary of The Metamorphosis is provided in the Appendix.
Lessons from Kafka's The Metamorphosis
questions. What interests does Gregor have? Why is his most prized possession a framed picture of a woman with a fur muffler? Gradually the reader comes to question whether in fact Gregor is a passive victim of his family's unfortunate circumstances or, more probably, someone who blames the world for his own unacknowledged inadequacies. As the reader begins to question misleading assumptions, deeper realities emerge. Could it be, for example, that Gregor locks his bedroom door at home just as he does in the hotel when he is on the road as a traveling salesman because to him his home does not feel any safer than the hotel? Or, conversely, could Gregor's locking his hotel door have been not merely a "habit" but, more tellingly, a sign of how unsafe he felt wherever he was, a feeling that his upbringing has firmly implanted? Has Gregor replicated in the dog-eat-dogworld of his workplace the predatory dynam- ics that characterized his household while growing up? Just as a person does not have to be an orphan to feel parentless, a person can live at home and still feel homeless. Thoughts about the locked door generate new possibilities. At the beginning of the story, Gregor struggles to turn the key to open his bedroom door. Later, as his sister Grete leaves his bedroom, we learn that she locks the door. Gregor's door, the reader now has the opportunity to appreciate, has been locked from both sides. Additional questions present themselves. Is there more than one key to Gregor's room? If there is, was the outside key in the door all the time or does only Grete have possession
of it? If the key was in the door all the time, why did the family not see it? If
it was not, why did Grete not tell her parents she had the key? If, on the
other hand, there is only one key, then Grete has taken Gregor's key and used it to lock his door from the outside. Metaphorical possibilities now abound. Who controls access to Gregor or Gregor's access to a free world? Does Gregor deny others access to him? Are his inner doors locked no matter what attempts others make? Are others forced, or do they choose to violate him to make contact? How is the locked door at home connected to the "consideration" that Mr. Samsa continually demands and Gregor provides?
Consideration In his writings on contextual therapy, Boszormenyi-Nagf emphasizes that relationships between parents and children are like no other relations. Parents provide for their children biologically, emotionally, materially, and in the kinds of responsibilities they assume. If parental functions have been dispatched in a fashion that merits trust, provides fairness, and accepts
AMERICAN JOURNAL O F PSYCHOTHERAPY
"personal accountability for relational consequences," then these parents have earned the right to expect certain considerations (loyalties) from their children. These expectations are not to be equated or confused with the "tyrannical shoulds" of enmeshed or controlling families. Conversely, in those instances where parents have abandoned, betrayed, exploited, or hated their offspring, they forfeit some measure of expectable filial consid- eration and loyalty. Like some of our patients, Kafka appears to tell a story about filial devotion and family gratitude. A young man postpones his own career to support his family that has been beset by financial misfortune and wracked by physical illness. Above and beyond the call of duty, this considerate son pays off family debts, sets aside additional savings, and even plans to pay for his sister to study music the following year at the conservatory. Or, does Kafka wish to convey an entirely different message?
Some might argue that Kafka actually depicts in The Metamorphosis the
perversion of Boszormenyi-Nagy's concept of trustworthy relationships. Consideration as demanded by Mr. Samsa from his family does not represent a justified parental request for filial repayment. Exploitation, coercion, and deception masquerade as consideration. The reader learns that although Mr. Samsa's business went bankrupt, some money survived the bankruptcy; that Mr. Samsa is capable of working, as is his asthmatic wife; that the household still maintains a large apartment and employs a maid and a cook; that Gregor's sister appears to have little musical ability. Kafka, gradually and strategically, provides information that reveals how warped is the Samsa notion of consideration. Because Gregor shares in these basic familial assumptions, the reader forms a different conception of Gregor than Gregor has of himself. The reader's experience with reference to Gregor and his family is quite similar to the process that takes place as a therapist listens to the patient's narrative. The therapist gradually forms perceptions of the patient's family and the patient's place in it that differ from the patient's view of these matters. Great literature though, like the stories our patient tells us, presents situations that, at different junctures, yield different meanings. The enlight- ened reader, like the astute therapist, constantly entertains provisional hypotheses about what events may mean. For example, in the beginning of the story, before the reader comes to question Gregor's unmitigated goodness, there seems little reason to doubt the assertion that his sister has musical talent. Gregor's wish to contribute financially to her musical education seems both benevolent and admirable. However, as the reader begins to appreciate Gregor's capacity for self-deception, the fact of Grete's 356
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
The Rendering o f Character through Situation Experienced clinicians know that asking their patients direct questions often does not yield the truth about their emotional lives. Instead, these therapists remind themselves: get the patient to tell a story. Ask questions in a way that facilitates the telling of the story. Become unobtrusive so that the storyteller becomes less and less aware of, or concerned about, the listener's presence and presumed judgments. As the patient becomes totally ab- sorbed in telling the story, which is now "up on the screen," the listener becomes a therapeutic onlooker, privileged to "see" the patient in hisher natural state.1° The therapist gets to see the patient driving, as it were, instead of relying on answers to questions such as, "What are you like when you are driving?" Kafka brilliantly reveals different dimensions of the character, motiva- tion, and family position of Gregor's mother and sister as they disagree over what to do about the furniture in Gregor's room. Gregor's mother wishes to keep Gregor's furniture undisturbed and in his room. Part of her prefer- ence derives from her concern that if the furniture were removed it will give Gregor the impression that the family has given up hope for him. She is also concerned that if they move the chest away from the wall to the middle of the room, there will be less space for Gregor to move about. Her predominant motivations, however, are based on considerations other than Gregor's real needs. First, the furniture is too heavy to move. Second, her husband might come home during the moving process, become upset and disruptive. And third, if they do not move the furniture, when Gregor finally returns to normal, he would "find everything unchanged and be able
all the more easily to forget what has happened in between" (p. 116).
Gregor's sister's motivations are equally complex. Having filled the vacuum left by their mother concerning the care of Gregor, Grete enjoys her status as the expert on Gregor's needs. Combining childish recalcitrance and adolescent self-indulgence, Grete emphasizes Gregor's need for space in a way that confirms her importance as his advocate. Grete clearly enjoys her adolescent triumph over her mother who, having abdicated her maternal responsibility, has lost credibility. Perhaps Grete's intense interest in her brother's welfare also serves to neutralize her envy of his status as the son in the family. Kafka renders this struggle between mother and daughter with emo- tional complexity and irony. In interceding on her brother's behalf, Grete actually separates Gregor from his remaining attachments: They were clearing his room out; taking away everything he loved; the chest in which he had kept his fretsaw and other tools was already dragged off; they
Lessons from Kafka's The Metamorphosis
were now loosening the writing desk which had almost sunk into the floor, the desk at which he had done all his homework when he was at the commercial academy, at the grammar school before that and, yes, even at the primary
school... (p. 118).
Gregor's mother argues for giving him more space but her position is not to be confused with genuine regard for her son. True, she did instinctively call for a doctor when her husband called for a locksmith upon the first inkling that something was amiss with Gregor. And yet, Gregor's mother never directly confronts her son's dilemma or the family's part in promoting it. It is two months into his metamorphosis before Gregor hears his mother's voice, even though she is constantly in the same apartment with him.
Story as Dream The school of object relations theoryl1has lent a dynamic dimension to the way we listen to our patients' stories. By noting the invisible but ever-present activity of the mental mechanisms of projection, introjection, and reprojection, we realize that there are no completely objective data in interpersonal relations. The accounts our patients tell us of their emotion- ally laden interactions with others are neither random nor unbiased. A substantial degree of identification frequently characterizes these relation- ships with others who represent externalized part-objects of our patients. The more obvious workings of such mental mechanisms appear in dreams. Here, projections of the dreamer, rather than simply coloring their perception of others, populate the dream as other people or parts of other people. Like puppets in a puppet show who initially seem autonomous but who actually are creations of the puppeteer, characters in a dream, regard- less of their existence in reality, are also productions of the dreamer.
The Metamorphosis can be read as a dream-Gregor is not quite sure
when he awakens whether he is still dreaming-in which Gregor's family members can be thought of as externalized parts of Gregor. The absolute validity of such a reading is less important than the potential for new meanings and connections that such a reading can generate. For example, Gregor can experience himself as earnest, well-meaning, and straightfor- ward as long as disowned parts of himself reside in the motivations of others. H e can think of himself as charitable and self-sacrificing so long as his father lives out Gregor's exploitative impulses. In less obvious ways, Gregor's mother, despite her initial call for medical help, also takes advantage of him. She appears to collude in keeping from Gregor the true state of the family's finances. She is willing to occupy the sick role while Gregor works, although when she has to work she does. She abdicates the
Lessons from Kafka's The Metamorphosis
ago that human beings can't live with such a creature, and he'd have gone away of his own accord (p. 134).
Repeatedly in the story, Kafka invites the reader, just as many patients invite their therapists, to consider questions about evil. Why are Gregor's parents willing to exploit him? Why is Gregor willing to be a sacrificial lamb? Why is Grete, the person in the family rendered most sympathetic to Gregor, willing to dehumanize him and advocate for getting rid of him? Why does his own mother wait until two months after his metamorphosis to speak to him by name? If his sister has a key to his room why doesn't she produce it and unlock the door? These minidecisions, and the feelings that underlie them, incrementally combine to produce what might be called evil. Perhaps our patients' parents, like Gregor's, experienced sufficient deprivation to cause them to make decisions at their own children's expense. Perhaps Grete senses her parents' willingness to sacrifice her brother, and she unconsciously identi- fies with their aggression. And perhaps Gregor senses his parents' wishes to be rid of him but finds it unbearably painful to acknowledge12;instead he turns them into their opposite and sacrifices himself for their welfare. Underlying all of these decisions is a refusal of each person to acknowledge hisher own destructive impulses. Without such acknowledgment, how- ever, there can be no responsibility for behaviors that emanate from such feelings. And with no responsibility, the door is open for evil to enter. As Eigen13 noted: If I feel you are the cause of my pain, I may find ways of justifying my wish to be
rid of you, to treat you as an annoying bug and stamp you out.... The urge to
make the irritating or tormenting other or self disappear can be lethal.... An
individual or group may surrender to the idea that annihilation is how to get rid of what is bugging one (p.20).
The Vicissitudes of Empathy
The reader who struggles with the text of The Metamorphosis soon
realizes that achieving an empathic stance toward Gregor-or his fam- ily-is not easy. At first, the reader might feel sorry for Gregor, just as one feels sorry for any victim of a catastrophe. But sympathy is not empathy. When the chief clerk shows up at the Samsa household and harshly criticizes Gregor and his work, Gregor's family oscillates between concern for their son's predicament and the fear that Gregor will lose his job and they, in the process, their financial support. Given the apparent disabilities of the various family members, their concerns seem natural. As the story progresses and their exploitation of Gregor becomes more obvious, the reader may again feel sorry for him. But, as the story further reveals his
AMERICAN JOURNAL O F PSYCIlOTHERAPY
capacity for self-deception, the reader becomes first impatient with Gregor and then repelled. His metamorphosis into a bug, and a debilitated one at that, captures his essential characteristics that existed before the metamor- phosis: annoying, loathsome, brittle, and easily crushed. At this point in the story, the reader's empathy for him is at an all-time low. His family's attitudes and behavior, however, become even more offensive and then more appalling than Gregor himself. It is bad enough when his father hits him with an apple and paralyzes him. But when Grete insists that Gregor is not Gregor but an It, the family becomes downright terrifying if not demonic. The reader now has a better appreciation of how Gregor may have become the human equivalent of a bug. As a result, the reader's empathic connection to Gregor may again rise. At the same time, the reader is invited to imagine how he/she might respond in times of emotional despair and physical exhaustion, states that the Samsa family has been experiencing in the context of Gregor's metamorphosis: "We must try to get rid of it," his sister now said explicitly to her father, since her mother was coughing too much to hear a word, "it will be the death of both of you, I can see that coming. When one has to work as hard as we do, all of us, one can't stand this continual torment at home on top of it. At least I can't stand it any longer" (p. 133).
The honest reader has to admit to the possibility, under such dire circum- stances, of having feelings similar to the Samsas'--although most readers probably take comfort in the hope that they would act more humanely. It is the capacity of these readers of the story to locate such uncivilized impulses in themselves that permits some measure of empathy for the Samsa family. A similar struggle takes place in the therapist who is involved in a treatment that plumbs the very depths of the patient's destructive capaci- ties. The therapist must find a way to love the most unlovable parts of the
patient. To do so, therapists, like the therapist-readers of The Metamorpho-
sis, must face in themselves the feelings of disgust and loathing, and the impulses to degrade, hold hostage, cannibalize, and annihilate the other. In depicting such horrific arrangements that human beings make with each other, Kafka offers some important lessons for the clinician. Appar- ently, for many people, these pernicious arrangements are preferable to remaining unattached or disconnected. Sometimes, it appears, human attachment12J4 is even more important, or seems more necessary, than being true to oneself. In selecting for Gregor's metamorphosis a creature as loathsome as a cockroach, Kafka captures the human tendency to avoid, judge, or even retaliate against human behavior that disgusts, that borders on evil.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
5. Rodenhauser, P., & Leetz, K. L. (1987). Complementing the education of psychiatry residents: A study of novels, plays, and films. Journal of Prychiatric Education, 11, 243-248. 6. Stone, A,, Stone, R. (1962). The abnormal personality through literature. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
- Charon, R. (1993). Medical interpretation: Implication of literary theory of narrative for clinical work. Journal of Narrative and Life Hirtory, 3,799-7. 8. Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Krasner, B. R. (1980). Trust-based therapy: A contextual approach. American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 767-775. 9. Hamburg, P. (1988).House and psyche. ArnericanJournalof Psychotherapy, 42, 107-123. 10. Havens, L. (1976). Participant observation. New York: Jason Aronson, pp. 118-124.
- Greenberg, J. R., & Mitchell, S. A. (1983). Object relations in psycho-analytic theory. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
- Fonagy, P., Steele, H., Moran, G., et al. (1991).The capacity for understanding mental states: The reflective self in parent and child and its significance for security of attachment. Infant Mental Health Journal, 13,200-2 17.
- Eigen, M. (1997). A bug-free universe. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 33, 19111. 14. Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss, vol. 2: Separation: Anxiety and anger. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
Lessons from Kafka's The Metamorphosis
APPENDIX
Gregor Samsa, a young commercial traveler, wakes up early one rainy mnrning in his room in his parents' apartment, transformed into a large
cg.Unsure whether his metamorphosis is real or a bad dream, Gregor
' reflects on his dissatisfaction with his present employer. As a result of the
collapse of his father's business five years earlier, Gregor's father is in debt to the man for whom Gregor is working. Gregor, now the sole support of his family, is working to pay off the debt which he estimates will take about five years. Gregor's bedroom door is locked and he struggles to get out of bed. His parents, unaware of his metamorphosis, knock on his door and urge him to get up and out to work. A representative from work appears at the apartment to inquire after Gregor's whereabouts. An awkward situa- tion ensues: Gregor's family's loyalty oscillates between concern for their son's predicament (which is still unknown to them) and fear that he will lose his job and they, in the process, their financial support. The company representative harshly criticizes Gregor and states that his work has been poor. From behind the door, Gregor makes an ineffectual verbal defense. Gregor's mother, Anna, sends his sister, Grete, for a doctor. Gregor's father, who remains nameless, calls for a locksmith. Gregor agonizingly turns the key and opens the locked door. His parents and the work representative are horror stricken at his appearance. Gregor tries to defend with speech, which proves unintelligible. The work representative flees. Gregor's father, filled with frenzy and repulsion, brandishing newspaper and cane, forces Gregor back into his bedroom. Gregor is back in his room, cut off from the family, apprehensive, and concerned about the inconvenience he is causing them. Grete sets food out for him daily, although no family member talks to him or mentions him by name. The family is overcome with shame. The household cook asks to leave. The reader learns of Gregor's generous support of his family at the expense of developing his own career. It also comes to light that some investments had survived the bankruptcy, some dividends had accrued, and some of Gregor's earning exceeded expenses and were left over. Neverthe- less, his father, mother, and sister must find jobs and they all do return to work. For two months Grete takes most responsibility for Gregor's care, but eventually his mother wishes to be more involved. Grete and her mother take Gregor's furniture and belongings out of his room. His mother finally sees him and faints. Gregor's father arrives home and, furious at Gregor, begins throwing apples at him and virtually paralyzes him the process.
