student’s last name 1

Student’s name

Professor’s name

Course title

Submission date

A Psychoanalytic Criticism of ‘Emergency’

'Emergency' is a short story by Denis Johnson, a famous playwright, novelist, and short-

story writer, it was published in his famous collection 'Jesus Son' (1992). This story has been

narrated by a first-person narrator who works as a clerk in a hospital. It depicts the unconscious

traumas and meaningless life of the narrator and his friend Georgie and advances in a dreamlike

fashion. Georgie is a drug addict who steals drugs from the hospital and remains intoxicated. The

narrator also takes some drugs and both hang around while intoxicated. The events and

happenings seem hallucinations and misperceptions of the two addicts. Life carries no meaning

for both of them and they spend it just randomly. In fact, they try to escape the realities of their

life and seek refuge in drugs. Psychoanalytic theory of criticism calls it anxiety which gives rise

to other core issues and emerges from the unconscious. This theory can be successfully applied

to analyze literary characters such as Georgie in 'Emergency'. The protagonist Georgie's

unconscious is overwhelmed by unfulfilled desires and psychological traumas which compel him

to seek escape in drug addiction and the dreamlike state as revealed by his hallucinations,

misconceptions and random actions.

The term Psychoanalysis was coined by an Austrian Neurologist, Sigmund Freud in

1896. He concentrated on unconscious mental processes and explained human personalities, their

behaviors and actions concerning their past experiences and subconscious mind. (Bradford).

Kenny explains that this theory emerged as clinical treatment and Freud applied it to reveal the
 student’s last name 2

psychological causes of hysteria. "The central tenet of Freud's psychoanalytic theory is the

concept of the unconscious, from which he derived two corollary concepts: hidden meaning and

repression." (2). As the theory unfolded, it was used to study human personalities, traumas and

other psychological behaviors. Another psychologist Lacan proposed the idea that the

subconscious is structured just like language and extended the theory further. This analytical

approach was not only applied to humans in real life but also literary characters. In the 1960s,

Psychoanalysis gained much popularity in the field of literature. Hossain comments "It is a

theory that is regarded as a theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality

that guides psychoanalysis." (1).

Initially, the Psychoanalytic theory was used to study the unconscious operations of the

author in his work. Then it shifted its focus on the characters and finally to the readers and

incorporated with the reader-response theory. Freud argues that unconsciousness has a decisive

role in human life. "The unconscious is the repository of traumatic experiences, emotions,

unadmitted desires, fears, libidinal drives, unresolved conflicts, etc." (Mambrol). The

unconscious develops through unhappy past experiences, drives human behavior, shapes his

personality and determines his attitude. Freud gave the concept of defenses, core issues, and

anxiety. People suppress their subconscious mind through conscious defenses and their

breakdown creates anxiety and reveals core issues. The unconscious mind is free to operate in

dreams and Freud argues that dreams are manifestations of our desires, fears, and core issues.

(Tyson 18). According to Psychology, a person seeks to escape from anxiety, intimacy

requirements, the vulnerability of emotions and realities through drug addiction. The drugs put

him in a dreamlike state and his conscious mind feels relaxed while unconscious drives his

behavior. (Weiss 1).

 student’s last name 3

The protagonist Georgie in 'Emergency' finds refuge in the drugs as the narrator states

that he often steals pills from the drug store. So, he is addicted to drugs and keeps on repeating

the same actions, like cleaning, over and over again. At the beginning of the story, the narrator

tells that Georgie spends a lot of time mopping the floor. "Jesus, there's a lot of blood here," he

complained. "Where?" The floor looked clean enough to me. "Will you please help me get this

blood mopped up?" Around" (Johnson 57). Even after continuous mopping, he sees blood on the

floor but the narrator does not. Drug addiction has affected his conscious mind and he sees the

things that are not reality. Blood symbolizes danger, fear and pain, this reveals Georgie's painful

past. His brain projects the traumas stored in the unconscious and indulges him in a dreamlike

state.

Freud states that during sleep, the unconscious mind is free to express itself as re-

emphasized by Georgie's words, "There's so much goop inside of us, man," he said, "and it all

wants to get out." (57). Intoxication is a half-sleepy state and is identical to dreaming at night. In

fact, Georgie speaks his mind, goop refers to blood, mawkish sentiments, unpleasant things that

are residing inside the protagonist. His words imply that he has some painful past experiences

from which he seeks escape through drugs. Freud says that the unconscious drives human

behavior and it wants to manifest itself in various ways. So, this is the case with Georgie, he

speaks random things, cries and cannot stop mopping the floor. Indeed, he is unaware of his

actions since he pulls out the knife from the patient's eye while doctors were much worried about

the situation.

Georgie's unconscious urged him to act antagonistically, his actions are random, rational

and irrational at the same time. For example, first, he hits the mother rabbit and then tears her

apart with his knife. The next moment, he saves the bunny rabbits found inside the mother's
 student’s last name 4

belly. His actions are juxtaposed, he is a savior and killer at the same time. This reveals his

psychological traumas, the battle between tenderness and aggressiveness is going on inside him.

Both negative and positive aspects of his personality are shown by his actions. "In a minute he

was standing at the edge of the fields, cutting the scrawny little thing up, tossing away its

organs." (60). He has a confused state of mind and cannot control his behavior. After thumping

bunny rabbits to the narrator, "He started driving along faster and faster, with a look of glory on

his face. "We killed the mother and saved the children." (61). Then, he also shows great

tenderness towards baby rabbits by asking the narrator to keep them warm and to bring the milk.

Georgie's dreamy condition hallucinated him and his unconscious showed him unusual

things. His life is just meaningless and he moves around randomly with the narrator. He feels

both summer and winter at the same place and with a little gap. This symbolizes his unstable life,

elements of which are visible in the dreamy environment around him. The narrator describes

"This day had been dry and hot." (61). While Georgie says "Do you realize it's going to snow?"

(61). During the course of a single day, he felt two seasons and stumbled around for no reason.

The narrator tells that they both rode on the truck and wandered to different places without any

reason. "After a while, Hardee asked Georgie, "What do you do for a job," and Georgie said, "I

save lives." (71). This conversation reveals that Georgie has an insecure sense of self and wanted

to see himself in another role. Perhaps, it was his inner desire to become a life savior. Hence, in

the state of intoxication and hallucination, he considers himself a savior.

Georgie's random lifesaving actions imply that he had a desire to become a life savior. He

fulfills his desire whenever he gets a chance but he is unable to accept the realities of his life. His

act of cleaning the blood from the floor is the manifestation of his desire of saving lives.

Similarly, his act of removing the knife from the patient's eye also reveals his compressed wish
 student’s last name 5

to save lives. Moreover, hitting the rabbit was an accident but he killed the dying rabbit. He

wanted to liberate the rabbit from agony just like he wanted to escape from his meaningless life.

While bunny fetuses symbolize regeneration, revival and rebirth. Georgie saved and protected

them, this reveals his unconscious desire to start life afresh and in a new way. The analysis of

Georgie's character, words, and actions suggests that he has many unfulfilled wishes and painful

memories in his unconscious repository. They are manifested at various points in the story.

Therefore, he seeks refuge in drug addiction and depicts how it changes his experience. Briefly

speaking, Freud's psychoanalytic theory is very useful in studying the role of the unconscious in

the life of literary characters.

 student’s last name 6

Work Cited

Bradford, Alina. "Sigmund Freud: Life, work & theories." LiveScience, 12 May 2016. URL:

https://www.livescience.com/54723-sigmund-freud-biography.html

Hossain Mahroof. "Psychoanalytic theory used in English literature: A descriptive study".

Global Journal of Human-Social Science: G Linguistics & Education, vol. 17, no.

1, 2017, pp. 40-46. URL: https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume17/3-Psychoanalytic

Theory-used.pdf

Johnson Denis. "Emergency" in Jesus' Son. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC, 1992, pp. 57.

Kenny, Dianna Theadora. "A brief history of psychoanalysis: From Freud to fantasy to folly."

Psychotherapy and Counselling Journal of Australia, vol. 4, no.1, 2016, pp. 1-27. URL:

https://pacja.org.au/2016/09/a-brief-history-of-psychoanalysis-from-freud-to-fantasy-to

folly-2/

Mambrol Nasrullah. "Freudian Psychoanalysis." Literary Theory and Criticism,Literariness.org,

16 April 2016. URL: https://literariness.org/2016/04/16/freudian-psychoanalysis/

Tyson Lois. Critical Theory Today. Routledge, 2006, New York: London.

Weiss Robert. "Why do people with addictions seek to escape rather than connect? A look at the

approach to addiction treatment." Consultant360, vol. 56, no. 9, September 2016, pp. 1-5.

URL: http://www.consultant360.com/articles/why-do-people-addictions-seek-

escaperather-connect-look-approach-addiction-treatment.
student’s last name 7