A Psychoanalytic Approach upon Chong-Jun Yi's Autobiographical Serial Novels, â€˜The Negative and Positive Pictures of Painful Memoryâ€™

Choi, Jongbae

Abstract

Chong-Jun Yi has been one of the most influential contemporary Korean writers. His serial novel, The negative and positive pictures of painful memory, is autobiographical. In the form of a patient's free association during psychoanalysis, he seems to write of his own painful past memories in this novel. I have analyzed this novel psychoanalytically by assuming that its main character is the writer himself. The character shows some neurotic symptoms. He finds it difficult to remember his father's face, and remembers being afraid of a dam construction site when he was a child. He usually feels uncomfortable in crowds, and once experienced dissociation after listening to criticism in a meeting. His attitude is rigid; he seems to be restrained by invisible restrictions. He has depressed affect, has no ambition, and is passive. I have tried to interpret these neurotic symptoms as having originated from his Oedipus complex, which was unresolved because his father died when he was seven years old. He seems to have castration anxiety, low self-esteem, and a harsh and immature superego. Confronting his painful feelings, he tries to solve his intrapsychic conflicts by writing his story. However, I have suggested that dealing with his unresolved Oedipus complex would have better relieved his neurotic symptoms.