On The Process Of Puttermesser’s Self-realization: A Psychoanalytic Study Of The Puttermesser Papers From Theories Of Personality

According to theories of personality, “personality is the dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations”.(Ryckman, 2008: 4) This thesis attempts to make a psychoanalytic study of the process of Puttermesser’s self-realization in Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers. At first, faced with disappointing reality and unbalanced personality, Puttermesser chooses to go to fantasy where she takes off her overdeveloped persona and releases her repressed id. However, her hidden shadow is aroused for the overdevelopment of the id. She realizes that she should control her shadow under the moralization of the superego, and she strengthens her ego to overcome the anxiety which comes from the opposite needs of the id and the superego. As a result, her personality gets balance. Finally she makes introspection of her psyche and realizes the self. Through discussing the development of Puttermesser’s personality, it aims at analyzing how the different parts of personality influence each other and affect her behaviors so as to uncover the reasons of the protagonist Puttermesser’s absurd behaviors and the purpose of the author’s writing. Taking Puttermesser’s spiritual experiences as an example, Ozick emphasizes that Jewish people should abide by traditional morality and find the meaning of their life; meanwhile she reveals that people should appropriately worship and pursue perfection.