Reichian Psychotherapy And Emersonian Transcendentalism:Henderson's Spiritual Journey From Alienation To Equilibrium

Henderson the Rain King is surely one of dazzling books written by Saul Bellow,which displays esemplastic quality of the writer's imagination and represents his deep-felt concerns for human existence.From an integrated perspective of Reichian psychotherapy and Emersonian transcendentalism,the thesis aims to interpret the four-staged spiritual journey of Eugene Henderson from alienation to equilibrium—from his anxiety over death in America,playing the role of God(at least the god of death)to manipulate death in the Arnewi tribe,confronting and transcending death in the Wariri tribe to a promising end of rebirth in the Newfoundland airport.To be specific,Henderson suffered from physical alienation and social estrangement in America which were,in Reich's terminology,the manifestations of "muscular armor and "character armor".And according to Reich,the neurosis of Henderson should trace back to the death curse from his.father.Driven by the anxiety over death,Henderson embarked on his journey to Africa where he wrestled with the Prince Itelo,met the Queen Willatale and blew up the cistern in the Arnewi tribe and where he was arrested by the Wariri tribesmen,got himself involved in the rain-making ceremony,imitated the lioness Atti in its den,bore witness to the death of the King Dahfu in a lion hunt and finally escaped away with Romilayu from the tribe.The psychotherapy-like experiences in Arnewi and in Wariri did work to relieve the protagonist from physical alienation and social estrangement to a certain degree,but the Emersonian transcendentalism instilled by the King Dahfu turned out to be the very antidote that had helped Henderson to finally,spiritually triumph over death,the problem of his problems.And the scenario of running in the Newfoundland airport proved to carry hints of optimism for both characters and readers.The thesis consists of four major parts.The first is an introduction to life experiences of Saul Bellow,characteristic traits(such as the theme,typecast characters and narrative techniques)of his major productions and a literary review of the study of Henderson the Rain King at home and abroadhe second part argues feasibility and necessity of the integration of Reichian psychotherapy and Emersonian transcendentalism after an elaboration on central tenets of these two theories that have already been hinted in the novel.The third,interwoven with Reichian psychotherapy and Emersonian transcendentalism,comes a textual analysis in details to elucidate the safari from America,Africa to Newfoundland,from alienation to equilibrium.The last serves as a brief conclusion that restates the main ideas of the thesis and suggests Bellow's essential concerns for modern mentality and optimistic oppositions to the nihilistic tendencies of modern literature.