The past few weeks here in the United States, we have experienced \u00a0something of a stir about the publication of Harper Lee\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d novel, Go\u00a0Set a Watchman<\/i>, which is a sequel to Ms. Lee\u2019s 1960 acclaimed novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird<\/i>.\u00a0 This much anticipated book has taken 55 years to finally appear\u2014the reasons for which I will not go into here.\u00a0 Much of the controversy about the book is not just literary; it has to do with the fact that it appears the\u00a0central character (of both books), attorney Atticus Finch, is not the man we thought him to be, prompting more than one front page article on the subject in the New York Times<\/i>.\u00a0 Why should there be such an interest in a fictional character?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, maybe some of that interest has had to do with actor Gregory Peck\u2019s superb interpretation of him in the 1962 film adaptation of the first book.\u00a0 But beyond that, a lot has to do with the peculiar and rare phenomenon where a fictional character becomes much more than a fictional character; in fact, takes on a life of its own.\u00a0 And what particularly intrigued me, as I have learned in following the controversy, is the fact that more has been written about the character Atticus Finch in journals aimed at the legal profession than in literary ones<\/i>.\u00a0 This non-literary fascination with Atticus Finch recalls to mind a similar such fascination with the character Isak Borg of Ingmar Bergman\u2019s 1957 film Wild Strawberries<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The name Isak Borg is probably not well known to the general public\u2014and that also includes the film-going public.\u00a0 But he is well-known to the mental health profession in America; and that is for two important reasons.\u00a0 The first is because Isak Borg is seventy-six years old, which is unusually old for the main character of a film.\u00a0 The second reason is that in America, mental health professionals (e.g. psychiatrists) are severely restricted in writing about their patients in professional journals.\u00a0 Furthermore, they are usually prohibited from writing about the perceived mental problems of people they have never treated, particularly public figures.\u00a0 So who can they write about?\u00a0 Why fictional characters, of course.<\/p>\n
The use of literature to illustrate an important theory is not new to the field of mental health: Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, used a character from ancient Greek drama, Oedipus, to formulate one of his most important theories\u2014the oedipal complex<\/i>.\u00a0 Although Freud had no knowledge of the film Wild Strawberries\u2014<\/i>he died years before the film was made– the film made a distinct impression\u00a0on three people who are\/were practitioners\u00a0 of the field that Freud helped pioneer: psychotherapy; I will recount some of those impressions now.<\/p>\n
Dr. Harvey Greenberg\u00a0in an article entitled \u201cThe Rags of Time\u201d (1975) subjects Isak Borg to the rigors of psychoanalysis.\u00a0 Characterizing his study as \u201cpsychoanalytic notes on Ingmar Bergman\u2019s Wild<\/i> Strawberries<\/i>,\u201d Dr. Greenberg pays particular attention to Isak\u2019s childhood relationship with his mother, whose perceived coldness figured prominently in the psychological and emotional problems that plagued Borg\u00a0throughout his life.\u00a0 \u00a0Dr. Greenberg also provides a Freudian interpretation to the many dreams of Wild Strawberries<\/i>.\u00a0 In particular, he points out that at least one of the dreams in the film was what Freud termed an \u201cexamination\u201d dream, in which the dreamer finds himself taking an exam in which he is ill-prepared for ;\u00a0 however, the purpose of such a dream is to reassure the dreamer of \u00a0his ability to handle and resolve current stress or neurotic conflict in his life. \u00a0This is perhaps a key to understanding Isak Borg\u2019s character: for most of his life Isak had to overcome disappointment ithat he was ill-prepared for: e.g. his fianc\u00e9e abandoning him, a loveless marriage and an unfaithful wife; but persevere he always did.\u00a0 (It should be noted that in Swedish the word borg <\/em>means fortress<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Erick Erickson was another mental health care professional who saw in Isak Borg a promising teaching tool.\u00a0 Erickson was more than just a health care professional: he was a giant in the field.\u00a0 A renowned psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist, Erickson broke with Freud in the area of personality development.\u00a0 Whereas Freud concentrated almost exclusively on the infantile development of the psyche, Erickson saw its development as a lifelong process.\u00a0 Erickson divided this development into eight stages:<\/p>\n In a chapter {A Life History: Revalidation and Reinvolvement<\/i> ) from a book [Vital Involvement In Old Age <\/i>(1986]] that he authored with two other people, \u00a0Erickson uses Borg\u2019s life to illustrate the above eight stages.\u00a0 Obviously the last stage, old age, has particular significance as it relates to Wild Strawberries<\/em>.\u00a0 Erickson explains that the word wisdom<\/i> symbolizes the strength of this last stage of life.\u00a0 It is indeed ironic to associate the word wisdom <\/i>with Isak Borg, as wisdom was the one thing that escaped him for most of his life, despite his education. \u00a0Erikson, in justifying the use of a fictional character to present his theories and clinical findings, goes beyond the obvious need to protect the privacy of actual patients; he notes that \u201cartistic works of greatness have a way of presenting in a convincing form some total truths about life, which rarely characterize other reports and abstracts of a human life, making it truly a life history.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Bob Knight, in his book Psychotherapy with Older Adults<\/i> (1996) also employs Isak Borg as a teaching example.\u00a0 Dr. Knight stresses the cautions that need to be taken when employing a \u201clife review\u201d with elderly patients\u2014and certainly Wild Strawberries<\/i> was a \u201clife review,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n The central aesthetic question pertaining to Bergman\u2019s Wild Strawberries,<\/i> as I\u00a0indicated in my book The Screenplay as Literature,<\/i> was whether or not Isak Borg undergoes any significant change after this \u201clife review.\u201d\u00a0 My answer was that he did not.\u00a0 Furthermore, I wrote, \u201cBesides, from the point of view of dramaturgy, what would be the point of such a change anyway?\u00a0 At the age of seventy-six, what effect on his own life and the life of others could such change have?\u201d\u00a0 I then noted that Isak\u2019s wife was dead, and then there was the rather acrimonious relationship between Isak and his son.\u00a0 However, where I may have seen a mellowed, somber stoicism\u00a0as the \u00a0best outcome for Isak, Knight sees hopeful potential.\u00a0 He points out that Borg still is mentally sharp and could practice his profession if he so chooses.\u00a0 Then there is the fact that he soon will become a grandfather\u2014so why shouldn\u2019t he become a doting grandparent?\u00a0 And as for romance, Knight reminds us that his cousin Sara, who is now 75 years old and still beautiful, is a widow: why not marry her?\u00a0 Keep in mind that Sara rejected Isak when he was a young man and married his older brother.<\/p>\n Well, I don\u2019t see any of the above as likely to transpire, particularly a marriage between Isak and Sara.\u00a0 I still stand by my original literary <\/i>analysis of the film and screenplay\u2014rather than a psychological<\/i> one.\u00a0 But, then again, who am I to deny that where there\u2019s life, there\u2019s hope!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The past few weeks here in the United States, we have experienced \u00a0something of a stir about the publication of Harper Lee\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d novel, Go\u00a0Set a Watchman, which is a sequel to Ms. Lee\u2019s 1960 acclaimed novel, To Kill a … Continue reading \n