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The Gothic Psyche: Disintegration and Growth in Nineteenth-Century English Literature (Studies in English & American Literature & Culture)

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Steven B. Herrmann, PhD, MFT
Author of "William Everson: The Shaman's Call"

According to literary critic Matthew C. Brennan, when "the shadow of nineteenth century neoclassicism" was made conscious through "its fictional roots in the mid-eighteenth century," (1) the Gothic emerged. The Gothic was a symbolic psychological position that sought to correct for the one-sided attitude of materialism, rationalism, and science that neoclassicism had fostered with "an aesthetics of nightmare, an aesthetics of the liminal and of crossed or open boundaries" (6). The Gothic image became a symbol of the dark, sexual, and destructive sides of the personality--providing us with "cautionary tales about the dangers of neglecting the unconscious" (9). Gothic literature, a genre of the repressed shadow of Western civilization, tended toward "excess and exaggeration" (1). As Brennan points out, at least three of the most prominent examples of Gothic romance were germinated in dreams, the most notable of which were Marry Shelly's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (6-8). Brennan writes about the "neurosis dramatized" in these fictions as "a call to health" (12). He warns that "Gothic characters personify sides of the unconscious personality that have been neglected or repressed and need to be integrated to avoid catastrophic psychic destruction" (13). Brennan also employs Gothic poetry to portray how Gothic images can serve as agents of psychological growth, healing and transformation, by making the repressed shadow conscious in us. Certainly one of the most important novels for the twentieth century is the story of Frankenstein. How can Gothic poetry and fiction help us understand the psychology of "dangerous" archetypal images such as Frankenstein, Dracula, Hyde, Geraldine, or Lamia? Taken as a whole, the Gothic novel or poem, in Brennan's view, can help us see the dangers lurking in the unconscious if the shadow is not made sufficiently aware. The key to our release from that danger is the achievement of a liminal experience of the affect of Gothic terror and horror. Like a compensatory dream, the cautionary tale gives the reader a new outlook on life, an inner conviction to live life more fully recognizing of both the creative and destructive potentials stored up within these archetypes.