PSYCHOANALYSIS DEFENSE MECHANISM OF AMIR

CHARACTER IN AYAD AKHTAR’S DISGRACED

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

After the 9/11 attacks most Muslims reported that they felt unsafe in the

US. Many muslims in the US, feel insecure because of the way they are treated by

the American government, the American public, and the way they are presented in

the public media. (Cainkar, Louise. 2009: 1).

Ayad Akhtar's drama Disgraced opens up a new perspective on Muslim

immigrants and Islamophobia, this is seen in the portrayal of the life of the main

character Amir an Islamic immigrant who lives in the US post-9/11. Amir is

portrayed as a corporate lawyer and Muslim immigrant who married a white

woman and he is also fighting for his identity to break out of the stereotype of

Islamophobia. At first, Amir managed to avoid the islamophobic impact of his

environment by changing his real name and also changing his place of birth in

applying for a job, Amir had married a white woman named Emily who indicated

he was accepted into the U.S. environment, and would also soon get a job

promotion at his company. But since he decided to help his nephew speak up at a

trial of a Muslim criminal suspected of helping terrorists, Amir's life has slowly

begun to fall. His company will not promote him anymore, and when Amir and

his wife, Emily, have a dinner party suddenly the atmosphere turns into an intense

conversation involving religion, race, and violence. Amir's truth is revealed and
Emily is caught doing intimate things with one of their associates, Isaac. An

emotional Amir then hits Emily. Amir begins to realize that the life he has built

for himself maybe just a waste. Amir's life has never been the same again. The

thing that became very prominent and able to become the main attraction in the

drama Disgraced is the conflict between Amir and Isaac, which makes Amir

reveal controversial things about Islam just to defend his opinion.

Based on the brief overview of the drama Disgraced above, the writer

decided to analyze the main character in the drama Disgraced, Amir. The problem

raised by the researcher in this research is when it comes to Islamic issues or

Islamophobia, why is Amir, someone who is supposed to protect his own good

name and identity, so involved in controversial matters about islam? Based on

Amir's behavior the writer will develop this research into a psychological analysis

of the characters. Characters in literary works such as drama scripts must have

psychology, especially in drama scripts that display their stories in the form of

dialogue so that character psychology is built through these dialogues. The

analysis that the writer will do only focuses on psychological analysis, namely the

analysis of emotion formation and defense mechanism of Amir's character. The

analysis aims to understand the form and type of defense mechanism used by

Amir.

This analysis applies Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis in order to

establish how Amir's emotions were formed and the defense mechanisms theory

to find out how Amir vents his anger.

1.2 Research Question

Three questions underlining this research are:

1. How Amir's emotions are formed?

2. What kind of defense mechanism does Amir use?

3. How does Amir's emotions affect his actions?

1.2.1 Literature Review

As far as researchers observe, no one has specifically studied the drama

Disgraced by ayad Akhtar in the form of scientific research. However, the

researcher found several scientific studies that used the same theory. These

journals, articles, and theses that are relevant to this research will assist the

researcher in understanding more deeply about the object of the research and the

application of the type of defense mechanism.

The first related study is a thesis written by Ardian Setianto (2017) entitled

Okonkwo's Anxieties and Defense Mechanisms in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall

Apart. This study focuses on finding the Okonkwo's anxiety and the defense

mechanisms he uses to relieve anxieties he deals with. Setianto applies

psychoanalytical criticism and also several theories namely Murphy's theory of

character and characterization, theory of types of anxiety by Larry Daniel, and

Freud's theory of defense mechanism. Setianto says that the biggest burden that

Okonkwo feels is his fear, his fear to become like his father and to be weak. This

fear can be considered as main cause of Okonkwo's defense mechanism and this
was become stimulator and reason of all Okonkwo's action in the novel (2017:

33). One of Okonkwo's anxiety is his fears toward his son's failure and weakness

leads him to use defense mechanisms namely displacement by being harsh and

strict toward his son. Another Okonkwo's anxiety is his anxiety toward Nwoye's

conversion to Christianity. This leads him to use reaction formation as his defense

mechanism by blaming the church and missionaries and repression by forgetting

his son because he feels betrayed by him. This study is different from what the

writer will do in terms of the object of study and the theory of defense mechanism

used.

The second related study is the journal article by Merlyn Sneha Raj (2017)

entitled “A Psychoanalytical Reading of Norman Bates in Robert Bloch’s Psycho”

This journal article focuses on the analysis of Norman Bates' behavior using the

psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Raj learns that

Norman Bates became a psychopath because of the environment he faced as a

child. His mother was the only one he had after his father left them. He is deeply

disturbed to learn that her mother, who was at the center of her entire life and who

she thought was the only 'moral woman he knew,' had an extra affair with a man

named joe considine (2017, p.1634). However, Norman's obsession with his

mother leads him to commit murder for fear of losing his mother's love and

affection. Raj also concluded that it was the Norman superego that operated the

most. Norman feels guilty after killing his mother and begins to initiate his

multiple personalities to let go of his guilt. The research we will do is similar to

Raj’s study because the researcher also focuses on finding the reason behind the
character’s (Amir) actions, but this study is also different in terms of object of the

study used.

1.3 Theoretical Framework

This research uses several theories which are expected to assist in

answering the formulation of the research problem. This study uses a literary

psychology approach, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory (2008), and defense

mechanism theory.

1.3.1 Literature psychology

Wellek and Austin (1989: 90) explain that literary psychology has four

meanings. First, the psychology of literature consists of a psychological

understanding of the author as a person or type. Second, literary psychology

studies the creative process of writing. Third, the analysis of the laws of

psychology applied in literary works, and fourth, literary psychology is also

defined as the study of the impact of literature on the psychological condition of

the reader. In this study, the writer will use the third meaning, by applying it to the

theory of defense mechanism on Amir's character in the Disgraced drama script

by Ayad Akhtar to analyze the cause of him sacrificing his identity.

1.3.2 Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

According to Freud himself the human mind in the subconscious is

divided into three parts, namely the id, ego and superego (Feist &Feist, 2008: 27).

The balance of the relationship between the id, ego, and superego greatly affects a

person's personality, if the id is more dominant than the ego and superego, then
humans will only pursue pleasure regardless of whether it is appropriate and

whether or not the enjoyment is achieved. If the superego is more dominant then

humans will be controlled by feelings of inferiority and will experience many

conflicts. Healthy psychology is when the ego is dominant and can control the id

and superego well (Feist & Feist, 2008:31).

In a manga entitled Othello by Satomi Ikezawa, the personality of Yaya

Higuchi's character is analyzed using Freud's theory (Feist&Feist, 2008). The

analysis was done by collecting data based on actions taken by yaya higuchi and

then classifying the data into categories of id, ego and superego. After being

classified, then it can be concluded that there is an imbalance in Yaya Higuchi's

character. The following is an explanation of the id, ego and superego according

to Freud (Feist & Feist, 2008):

1.3.2.1 Id

The id is an area of the mind that is at the most basic part of the human

subconscious. If it is not controlled by the ego, then the id will make humans try

to avoid pain and satisfy their desires at all costs. Therefore, the id is called

moving in the principle of pleasure. Worse, because the id is at the deepest part of

the human subconscious, the id has no contact with reality at all, this makes the

desires arising from the id very unrealistic (Feist &Feist, 2008:27;30).

1.3.2.2 Ego

Ego grows from the id when humans are at the age of toddlers. As the only

part that has contact with reality, the ego works with the reality principle and
serves as a decision maker (Feist&Feist, 2008:28-29). The ego seeks to fulfill the

pleasures demanded by the id and to the moral standards demanded by the

superego. Both id and superego are not connected to reality so the demands of

these two things are unrealistic. In addition, the demands of the id and superego

are in opposite positions which make it harder for the ego to filter and make

decisions.

1.3.2.3 Superego

The superego is a growing part of the ego and works on idealistic and

moral principles, so it is quite the opposite of the id which works on the pleasure

principle. Although the superego develops from the ego, it is not as related to

reality as the ego, so the demands of the superego become very unrealistic in

achieving its ideal standards. This will give the possibility of two things

happening to humans. First, if the ego fails to achieve the ideal demands of the

superego then the superego will become dominant and there will be a feeling of

inferiority. Second, if the ego does or even only intends to do something that is

beyond the moral standards of the superego, there will be feelings of guilt

(Feist&Feist, 2008: 30).

1.3.3 Defense Mechanism

Defense mechanism theory are psychological strategies that are

unconsciously used to protect a person from anxiety arose from unacceptable

thoughts of feelings (Sigmund Freud 1894, 1896). This theory is related to the

writer's research, as Amir's character in the drama text Disgraced uses a defense
mechanism to protect himself from feelings of guilt or anxiety that arise due to the

pressure he receives. After they used the defense mechanism, they avoided and

reduced this kind of issues and motivated themselves in studying harder (Sigmund

Freud 1894, 1896).

Freud defined the ego defense mechanism as a strategy used by

individuals to prevent the open emergence of the impulses of the id as well as to

deal with superego pressures over the ego, with the aim that anxiety could be

reduced or eased (in Koeswara, 1991:46). The ego defense mechanisms are

unconscious reactions or spontaneous reactions carried out by the ego contained

within a person. The ego tries to maintain a stable relationship with the id and

superego. When anxiety is overwhelming, the ego tries to defend itself and

unconsciously the ego will defend itself by blocking all impulses or by changing

these impulses into a more acceptable form. Ego activity is conscious,

preconscious, or unconscious. Ego conscious activities are intellectual processes,

for example: a company leader who is able to make rational decisions for the

betterment of the company. The ego's preconscious activity is the memory

function. And the unconscious activities of the ego are carried out by defense

mechanisms. Sigmund Freud spoke of defense mechanisms in works such as

Inhibition, Symptoms, Anxiety (1926) Here are types of defense mechanisms that

are often used according to Cloninger (2004), he describe nine types of defense

mechanisms namely:

A. Projection
 Projection is defined as the process of defense mechanism in which an

individual’s unaccepted impulses are projected onto someone else (Cloninger,

2004: 46).

B. Identification

Identification is a type of defense mechanisms in which the people avoid

the recognition of one’s own inadequacies by imitating or adopting someone

else’s identity instead. Identification sometimes functions to overcome the

feelings of powerlessness. It is because the powerless is not used for their benefit

(Cloninger, 2004: 47)

C. Rationalization

Rationalization can be defined as a defense mechanism in which the

people react to the unacceptable impulses by giving the plausible, but false,

response to disguise the true motives. In other words, rationalization is seen as a

self-justification that refuses to confront the reality in order to reduce the anxiety

and yet go right behaving as the people want (Cloninger, 2004: 47).

D. Repression

Repression can be defined as the psychological strategy of repressing the

unacceptable impulses to be unconscious. It helps people to avoid experiencing

the anxiety by distorting the source, aim and object of the impulses, avoiding the

retaliation of the superego, and allowing the impulses to sneak past the censor

(Cloninger, 2004: 61).

E. Denial

Denial is a type of defense mechanisms in which an individual does not

acknowledge the painful emotion or anxienty that aroused (Cloninger, 2004: 45).

F. Isolation

Isolation is a type of defense mechanisms in which the thoughts related to

some unpleasant feelings are erased or are gone (Cloninger, 2004: 47)

G. Displacement

Displacement can be simply defined as a defense mechanism in which the

unacceptable impulses are repressed and shifted to another object. (Cloninger,

2004: 46).

H. Intellectualization

Intellectualization is a type of defense mechanisms in which people

prevent the recognition of an impulse by making an excessive or distorted

explanation. Intellectualization works like a sour grape attitude which means

people intellectually convince themselves that they did not want what they cannot

have (Cloninger, 2004: 47).

I. Reaction Formation

Reaction formation is a type of defense mechanism in which unacceptable

impulse is repressed and the opposite impulse is developed in an exaggerated

form. (Cloninger, 2004: 46).

 In this research, the researcher uses projection, identification,

rationalization, repression, denial, isolation, displacement, intellectualization,

reaction formation.

1.4 Method

1. The Objective of Research

The objective of this research is to analyze the character of Amir in

Disgraced drama based on Sigmund Freud and Cloninger's theories. This

research aims to determine the type and formation of defense

mechanisms used by Amir.

2. The Method of Research

In this research, the researcher applies descriptive qualitative

method in order to examine talks, texts, and interactions Amir as the

main character in the drama toward the circumtances. In this analysis we

use the descriptive analysis technique. This technique collects data in

form of words rather than number. The researcher will collect the data by

reading the scripts and browsing the internet for additional information.
 References

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McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Freud, S. (1926). Inhibitions, symptoms and anxiety. In J. Strachey, & A. Freud

(Eds.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of

Sigmund Freud (pp. 77-175). London: The Hogarth Press.

Parekh MA, Majeed H, Khan TR, Khan AB, Khalid S, Khwaja NM, Khalid R,

Khan MA, Rizqui IM, Jehan I. Ego defense mechanisms in Pakistani

medical students: a cross sectional analysis. BMC Psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud. (1894) Sigmund Freud Papers: Subject File, -1988; Bellevue

Sanatorium, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, patient case files; Ehrenfeld,

Gustav, 1894 to 1896. - 1896. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved

from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mss3999001309/