THE PROBLEMATIC EGO IN HEINRICH MANN’S WORK

Abstract

Freud’s psychoanalysis brought its contributions to the defining of the new identity crisis, still the term “identity” is missing from our analysis although we try to identify the character of the modern individual. We focus our paper on the major psychoanalytic theories and we investigate the human urges/ needs under the influence of the external world in terms of sexuality and social life. Heinrich Mann’s novel “In the Land of Cockaigne” presents us the decay of an individual whose main interest is the possession of objects and of other persons. Everything turns to be an object in the hands of the ‘master’, everything can be marketed, and sexuality, love, all feelings and desires are submitted to money, power and social life. This marketed universe in the eyes of the modern individual is linked to the theory of alienation; in this decayed world the individual feels himself alienated and wants to tear the veil of social restrictions and conventions.

Key words: power, sexuality, social status, relation between master and servant

SCS_13_2009_22