Rodriguez 1

Rodriguez Marvie C.

Dr. Vonn Clyde Nuñez

BSED ENGLISH 3A

Childhood Trauma on the Personality Development of Alicia Berenson in the Novel

“The Silent Patient”: A Psychoanalytic Criticism.

Childhood trauma has been linked to the development of anxiety and depression later

in life (Hovens et al., 2010), and a history of abuse may be more discernible by adulthood as

emotional and behavioral patterns have evolved. Emotional struggles caused by interpersonal

trauma may lead to emotional weakness as emotions of violation and betrayal exist within the

affected individual. Such feelings can disturb an individual's emotions system and contribute

to later problems with regulation (Barlow,2017). The manner one's early life is created

appears to be playing a very vital role in molding one's personality and identity towards the

successive stages of life.

This paper will use a psychoanalytic approach to examine the novel The Silent Patient

by Alex Michaelides in terms of the childhood trauma experiences and its contribution to the

personality development of Alicia Berenson. Early life of traumatic childhood experiences in

establishing the adult personality is the basis for conceptualizing the character development

and disorder in the psychoanalytic scope of Freud.

The whole paper mainly concentrates on the aspects of character development of

Alicia Berinson, why she came to commit such a horrible crime on her husband, Alicia’s

character is investigated in terms of her traumatic childhood experience on her parents and

her personality development according to Freud’s structure of personality namely the id, ego

and superego.
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Author’s Background

The Silent Patient is the most anticipated thriller of 2019 written by the author Alex

Michealides who is the son of an English mother and a Greek father. He was born in Cyprus.

He has a degree in English literature from Cambridge University and a master's degree in

screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He has also studied

psychotherapy and worked in a secure unit. Alex Michaelides talks about his background in

psychology helped him on the creation of the novel.In one of the interviews conducted, Alex

Michaelides explains that he was drawn into mental health as a child. Over the course of the

time, he received a lot of individual therapy and later became interested in studying it. His

sister is a psychiatrist, and she got him a part-time job in a safe youth ward, and he found it

an amazing experience.

Alicia Berenson’s Traumatic Childhood Experience on Her Parents

One of the strong predictors of potential negative personality development is

childhood trauma, the effects of trauma can last a lifetime. An incident that poses a threat to a

child's life or bodily integrity is known as childhood trauma either in the form of sexual or

physical abuse

I argued that Alecia’s childhood trauma contributes to the character she portrays and

as well the revelation of her family's buried and suppressed childhood experiences led to the

murder of Alicia's husband. Alicia had a bad experience in her childhood in terms of the

connection between her and her father. When Alicia was a child, her father psychologically

killed her by telling her face-to-face that he wished she had died instead of her mother who

was killed in a car accident, I doubt anyone would have recovered from that statementn, in

this excerpt:
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“‘My girl,’ he kept saying, ‘my poor girl, my Eva … Why did she have to die? Why did it

have to be her? Why didn’t Alicia die instead?’” (Vernon Rose, p. 235)

In my analysis when Alicia overheard this She developed a sense of being unloved,

unimportant and being betrayed. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory on the

personality development of a child, the child's personality development is strongly influenced

by the parenting style they receive. In the case of Alicia Berenson, her childhood experiences

are rooted in the way her family raised her, which greatly influenced her attitude as an adult.

She carried this memory of her murder throughout her life and into adulthood.

A key to Alicia's adult life is her childhood home,the phrase she utters here can

provide an explanation for all of her subsequent actions and experiences. “No one is born

evil” which justified that the moment a child is born she does not directly executes

undesirable behaviour but their are series of events and experiences the molds to her actions

and character development, which also claims that young people are unable to exact

retribution, so when they are mistreated, they hold on to their anger and eventually let it out.

The incident in which Alicia's mother Eva Rose strapped her to the car with her prior

to the accident was the traumatic childhood experience that Alicia had with her mother , this

traumatic scene is evident on this excerpt:

“I thought of my mother. Was she crazy? Is that why she did it? Why she strapped me into the

passenger seat of her yellow mini and sped us toward that redbrick wall? I always liked that

car, its cheerful canary yellow. The same yellow as in my paint box. Now I hate that

color—every time I use it, I think of death” (Alicia, p. 58)

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According to (Saghir, Ramsha 2022), children can also suffer psychologically from

one-time occurrences like a car accident, a natural disaster (like a hurricane), or medical

trauma. Even if it seems like every day to an adult, ongoing stress, such as living in a

dangerous neighborhood or being bullied, can be traumatizing. I argued that the one-time

event in the car also contributes to the long-term memory of the trauma, because even as an

adult, she can still recall details about this event.

Alicia’s Personality Development According to Freud’s Structure of Personality

In this phase I have examined the personality changes of Alicia Berenson via Id,

Ego and Superego at different stages. (Freud, 1923) in his book "The Ego and The Id"

represents the psychoanalytic theory of personality development, which includes Superego,

Id, and Ego. It has been explained that childhood trauma is one of the contributing factors

towards the personality changes or development of a person.

According to Hudson (2015), a person can consciously alter their personality by

altering personal customs and continuing to do so. Life events can alter an individual's

personality. These occurrences can occur during a person's developmental stages. People

have a present, a future, and a past. Our personalities may evolve as we move through life's

stages. People's personality changes are caused by more than just their own development. A

person's personality will only be affected by significant or intense events.

Moreover, in this analysis, I am still considering her childhood trauma as a factor in

her development; from this perspective, I will try to classify her personality development in

terms of:

1. Id

In the life of Alicia, considering the childhood trauma that created Alicia’s desire,

according to the Id structure of Freud's psychoanalytic approach, Alicia will feel satisfied if
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she attempts suicide as a means of escaping her difficult childhood, Gabriel suffered harm

and lost his life as a result of Alicia's buried feelings for her father and the abuse she endured

as a child. From Id's point of view, this claim puts a lot of emphasis on her personality.

According to (Gans, 2022), the pleasure principle drives the id, which strives for immediate

satisfaction of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not met immediately, it will

lead to anxiety or tension.

Contrary to expectations, Alicia does not experience fulfillment from her desire;

instead, she experiences dissatisfaction, which may explain her silence. Freud described the

id as the "dark, inaccessible part of our personality." that clear explains the desire of Alicia

to kill her husband is considered a dark motif.

2. Ego

The ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the

external world.’(Freud, 1923, p. 25), in connection with the parenting style Alicia received

when she was young pertaining to the influence of her mother and father that is considered to

modify her ego personality when she gets old. This factors influenced her to reveal the truth

on her diary in which she utters the reality of her true feelings and the reality of what leads

her to kill his husband Gabriel, , pertaining to this excerpt:

I hate causing him pain—and yet sometimes I desperately want to hurt him, and I don’t know

why. (Alicia, p. 111)

Revealing the truth through her diary is a way of associating how the society would

expect a silent person to reveal something that is unsaid. The societal norms that what is the

truth would be revealed in an appropriate societal manner. Macleod (2021), The ego

considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.
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3. Superego

The super-ego operates as a moral conscience and as well it involves guilt. Traylor

(2021), A person who has a dominant superego may be controlled by guilt and deny

themselves even the pleasures that are socially acceptable; On the other hand, a person may

develop into a psychopath if the superego is weak or absent. In this personality phase of

Alicia, the Superego is present the moment she became silent after killing her husband

Gabriel, Silence is her way of portraying guilt, and that conscience revolves around her

personality. Alicia showing her guilt is present in this excerpt:

“She answered no questions. She could not, would not, speak. Nor did she speak when

charged with Gabriel’s murder. She remained silent when she was placed under arrest,

refusing to deny her guilt or confess it.” (Theo, p. 12)

According to Mcleod (2021), the superego integrates the qualities and ethics of

society, which are gained from one’s parents and others. Incorporating what Alicia

experienced during her childhood, it shows mostly evidence of a traumatic childhood that

possibly contributed to her lack of development of the superego personality, the family she

grew up in was unable to properly attend her conscience.

Lastly, In my analysis the superego personality of Alicia was lose to her Id

personality for the reason the moment she killed her husband Gabriel she is no longer able to

track her conscience and by that, the dominant personality that circulates on her character is

the Id personality.

Conclusion

To conclude, the traumatic childhood experiences linked to the personality

development of Alicia Berenson in the novel The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, these
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childhood experiences pertains to the parenting style she received during her younger days

and the traumatic event of her and her mother in the car that creates an unforgettable trauma

to Alicia. Using the psychoanalytic lens which focuses on the personality structure of id, ego

and superego, traces of evidence are found that her personality development connects to her

traumatic experiences during her childhood.

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WORKS CITED

Kendra, Cherry. "Id, Ego, and Superego: Freud's Elements of Personality." verywell

mind, 13 Sept.,2022, www.verywellmind.com/the-id-ego-and-superego-2795951.

Saghir, Ramsha. "Impact of childhood trauma on personality development." Matrix Media,

8 Mar. 2022, matrixmag.com/impact-of-childhood-trauma-on-personality-development/.

Kendra, Cherry. "Understanding the Role of Freud's Superego." verywell mind, 20

May 2020,

www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-superego-2795876#:~:text=According%20to%20Sigmu

nd%20Freud's%20psychoanalytic,behave%20morally%2C%20rather%20than%20realisticall

y.

Mcleod, Saul. "Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego." Simply Psychology, 25 Sept. 2019,

www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html.