A Psychoanalytic View Of Mao Zedong’s Personality

Mao Zedong, is without a doubt one of the most polarizing and controversial characters in modern Chinese and world histories. What was his personality made of? What factors have contributed to having such a personality? This thesis is written to answer these challenging questions from the perspectives of classical Freudian psychoanalysis.This thesis uses the tools and methods of classical Freudian psychoanalysis to show why Mao was who he was and how he got there. The thesis is divided into five parts, part one looks at both the family background and the surrounding social and cultural settings Mao was raised in; it will show how these background factors had enabled him having a rebellious nature and a curiosity for the outside world. Part two examines Mao in his schooling years as well as early career days. It will show us that it is due to the significant amount of libido that had been accumulated during this time frame that Mao became very anxious, and the lasting effects the anxiety had on him and will have on him later on in his life, both physically and mentally. In part three, the thesis takes a closer look at the relationship between young Mao and his mother, and how this relationship ultimately became the reason Mao was so narcissistic; the Chinese classical Yang-Ming school of thought, in which Mao was deeply influenced by under his beloved teacher Yang Changji also played a role in making Mao became narcissistic. In part four, we will learn that because of the lack of love from his father, Mao had to find other characters to fulfill the empty hole left by his father. Mao was able to find these character models through reading, from books that told the great stories of those great men in both Chinese and Western histories who’ve fought against the tides of opposition and achieved great political successes. The last part examines the conflicting relationships between Mao’s ego, id, and super-ego. It was through their conflicting relationships that Mao’s conflicting personality was made, his personality is directly derived from such interrelationships between his ego, id, and super-ego. The thesis concludes that Mao’s early childhood upbringing and schooling years had dominated and directed his personality development and growth;it was primarily Mao’s personality that made him become politically successful later on in his life.