When we look at the object relations of the character in the work, the father factor often stands out, while the mother does not appear much. In this case, we would not be wrong to say that the internal object or imago of the mother does not take place in our character’s mind. In this case, we can say that our character, who did not feel the “average good mother” in Winnicott’s words, was exposed to oral fixation. When the child establishes the internal representation of the mother well, the child will develop a sense of “basic trust” and will gain the strength to withstand the internal conflicts, pain, conflicts of social relations and culture in the future. (Freud’s Oral Period – Erikson’s Against Basic Trust) Insecurity Period- Klein’s Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Period). In this period, we know the process of “Connection” with Bowbly’s contributions. We can also add that the reason why our character cannot be deeply attached to a person is the weak result of his interaction with the mother. When we follow the story of the novel carefully, we can see that the attachment type is ”Avoid Attachment”. Failure to establish an adequate loving relationship with the mother in the preoedipal period contributed to anxiety and general insecurity in interpersonal relationships later on. As we see in the novel, alcohol and cigarettes became the objects of oral satisfaction used to compensate for the fixation he experienced during this period. After our character emerges from childhood, trying to relate to and reduce anxiety with women who can take care of and comfort them is one of the consequences of the attachment type. He has regressed to the oral period with alcohol, cigarettes and such relationships and tries to seek satisfaction with these objects.
Oedipus effects: The more the child has made his mother a “good internal object” in the oral period, the easier and more harmless it will be to get out of the Oedipus complex. Looking at the Oedipus period, it can be seen that the immature ego is exposed to the level of the Oedipus complex, which is difficult to bear, while progressing without adequate love and care in the oral stage, and the father is perceived as a great object of fear and threat. He experienced the image of the father as an incomprehensible, frightening being. This has greatly increased his social anxiety. The “self object”, which was not developed in the oral period, faced a major blow when the Oedipal period was entered, and this brought the identity problem to its peak.
School period: When our character started school, adjustment problems arose, as stated by “Hartmann”. The reasons for this are not having enough self-object, insufficient ego development, attachment and oedipal anxiety. Here, the concept of “persona” (clown mask) emerged, which we learned with the contribution of Jung, who he discovered since childhood, in order to adapt. Worrying whether Takeichi would notice his anxiety at school was a manifestation of the resurgence of Oedipus anxiety. This was the result of self-object and inadequate ego. He takes Horiki, whom he met here, as an object of identification. Here we see that Mahler is quite compatible with the concept of differentiation-individuation. Identification with Horiki helps him gain the ability to control anxiety internally by reactivating Oedipal anxiety, such as separation anxiety and castration anxiety, which are experienced in the process of being dependent on him and experiencing conflict.
When our hero hears the news of his father’s death: The hatred of the father, accompanied by the Oedipal aggression against the father repressed in his childhood, has caused him to face a state of Oedipal guilt that is difficult to control. We can think that the superego of his father, who could not be internalized since childhood and adolescence, caused a punishing guilt in our character and led to a suicide attempt.
Defense Mechanisms: We can see our hero’s effort to eliminate his anxiety and fear in social life under the name of “humor”. The clown, on the other hand, makes it possible to “deny” the fear that exists inside, by “projecting” the feared object outward and cariculating himself as a victim of it.
Suicide: The first attempt with Tsuneko was a manifestation of a desire to regress (regress) to a “symbiotic” situation that was once experienced with the mother. The second attempt was about a grown man’s inability to protect his wife.
Our character’s suicide and self-harming behavior can be seen as the result of either aggression fueled by a strong hostility to the ego unconsciously associated with the lost father, or a state of compensating for the loss symbiotically with the mother. I would also like to explain with Menninger’s ideas; (the desire to kill, the desire to be killed, the desire to die) no moment is worth living, the desire to die immediately and be with his family and return to his mother’s womb. (symbiotic association)
