Mad To Be Normal:An Existential Psychological Study On The Image Of Kate In The Summer Before The Dark

The Summer Before the Dark,one of three "inner space novels" written by Doris Lessing in the 70 s,was hailed by The New York Times as "the best novel since Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude".The novel takes the heroine Kate Brown’s summer journey as the main line,unfolds through her memories and dreams,and tells the story of Kate’s journey to find her true self and regain courage and confidence.In her novels,Lessing reveals women’s experiences in the process of modern social and cultural system and cultural construction,presenting to readers how women,after losing their autonomous identity in the conflict between traditional and modern cultural concepts,individual and social collective in the second half of the 20 th century,find themselves again in the despair of being deprived of self-confidence and protest ability by the cultural environment.And gain the courage to survive.Based on the existential psychoanalysis theory of R.D.Laing,this paper studies the madness and healing of the protagonist Kate in the novel The Summer Before the Dark from the perspectives of existential unease and self-division,the relationship between madness and family,as well as the correction of schizophrenia,and tries to explore the profound implications of the work from a new perspective.This paper is mainly composed of introduction,text and conclusion,in addition to the introduction and conclusion are divided into three chapters.The introduction briefly describes Lessing’s life and her work The Summer Before the Dark,expounds the research status of this work at home and abroad,and analyzes the shortcomings and problems that need to be solved in the current research of this work.In addition,the central argument and structure of the thesis are explained.The first chapter is the theoretical basis,which introduces the existential psychoanalysis theory of R.D.Laing used in this paper,and specifically discusses the reasons for the self-split of the heroine Kate Brown,Kate’s survival dilemma and three forms of existential anxiety.The reason for Kate’s self-division is the existential unease she feels in her life,and the factors of existential unease come from three aspects,including society,family and culture.The second chapter analyzes the concrete behavior and development of Kate’s self-split.The mind-body split is Kate’s way of dealing with her own existential insecurities.This strategy,while allowing her to live as effectively as a "normal" person,caused her various anxieties to persist.The embodied self embodied in Kate’s interior was divided into the embodied Self and the unembodied Self,during which the embodied self was divided into the embodied self and the fake self.Her false self obeys the expectations of the outside world and plays the role of a good wife and mother,while her inner true self becomes more and more rigid.The third chapter explores the occurrence and development of Kate’s mental illness,as well as the process of how she finds her true self and gets out of her predicament.This chapter analyzes the means Kate uses to regain her sense of independent identity from the inside and the outside journey.To complain is to introduce one’s own existence,one’s entire existence in one’s own world into the healing process.It means to begin to exist as oneself and not as others.In the end,Kate reinvented herself.Kate’s true normality does not depend on the restoration of her physical image,but on the perfect integration of her whole being.This paper discusses in detail the occurrence and development of Kate’s existential unease and self-split,as well as the process of Kate’s selfhealing and successful self-reshaping,providing references for the study of literary texts with the theory of existential psychoanalysis.Kate loses herself in the play of the false self personality,and finally finds herself after unmasking the false self and getting rid of the shackles of the mask personality.Through the individual image of Kate,Lessing expressed her understanding of the truth of people’s living situation,her situation in the family and society,as well as her experience of getting rid of the shackles of false self and reshaping herself,which has certain enlightening and guiding significance for people who are experiencing the same or similar living situation to get rid of the dilemma and choose the correct future direction.