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Maternal destructiveness in the life of Franz Kafka

Maternal destructiveness in the life of Franz Kafka MATERNAL DESTRUCTIVENESS IN THE LIFE OF FRANZ KAFKA Arthur Scherr Acknowledged one of the twentieth centu ry's greatest writers, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) elaborated the Angst of modern man. His best-known works, "Metamorphosis," The Trial, and The Castle starkly depict the alienated individual's futile attempts to communicate with family and society. A related theme in Kafka's life and work is his obsessive brooding on life's adventitiousness and the ubiquitous threat of sudden, violent death, which provides the motif for many of his great novels and short stories. Kafka scholars agree that he regarded his father, Hermann, as the malevolent agent who wished to destroy him: his diaries, short stories, and famous unsent Brief often point this out. However, it is doubtful whether the father was the sole source of his anxiety and fear of violent death. It is necessary to reassess Kafka's interaction with his mother Julie, going beyond those interpreters who see her as a sympathetic fellow victim of his father's tyranny (Hoffman, 1945, pp. 239-240) or the passive, obedient wife who ignored her son (Miller, 1984, pp. 257, 263; Pawel, 1984). Employ- ing Rheingold's theory of the "catastrophic death complex" (1967), which posits traumatic exposure to maternal destructiveness http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

Maternal destructiveness in the life of Franz Kafka

Scherr, Arthur
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 47 (3): 17 – Sep 1, 1987
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References (36)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1987 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1007/BF01250345
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

MATERNAL DESTRUCTIVENESS IN THE LIFE OF FRANZ KAFKA Arthur Scherr Acknowledged one of the twentieth centu ry's greatest writers, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) elaborated the Angst of modern man. His best-known works, "Metamorphosis," The Trial, and The Castle starkly depict the alienated individual's futile attempts to communicate with family and society. A related theme in Kafka's life and work is his obsessive brooding on life's adventitiousness and the ubiquitous threat of sudden, violent death, which provides the motif for many of his great novels and short stories. Kafka scholars agree that he regarded his father, Hermann, as the malevolent agent who wished to destroy him: his diaries, short stories, and famous unsent Brief often point this out. However, it is doubtful whether the father was the sole source of his anxiety and fear of violent death. It is necessary to reassess Kafka's interaction with his mother Julie, going beyond those interpreters who see her as a sympathetic fellow victim of his father's tyranny (Hoffman, 1945, pp. 239-240) or the passive, obedient wife who ignored her son (Miller, 1984, pp. 257, 263; Pawel, 1984). Employ- ing Rheingold's theory of the "catastrophic death complex" (1967), which posits traumatic exposure to maternal destructiveness

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Sep 1, 1987

Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis

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