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Article: Compulsions of the Renaissance.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Shakespeare Studies
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Associated University Presses. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN FREUD'S History of an Obsessional Neurosis, the case history that develops most explicitly his theory of compulsion, Freud compares the behavior of his patient, the Rat Man, to the biblical Balaam who, employed by the Moabites to curse the Jews, could only bless them. The Rat Man, Freud explains, would remove stones from his beloved's walking path in order to protect her; he would then reconsider his work, would worry that the clearing itself might cause her harm rather than good, and would replace the stones. The Rat Man insisted that this self-canceling activity was a labor of love; Freud agreed but also interpreted it as an expression of hate, so that the ...