The role of the death of the father

Note: I have a kindle version of the book so I don’t have page numbers. The passage I am discussing is at the end of chapter 6.

One quote that struck me is when Younger is discussing his relationship to his father and his father’s expectations. He discusses how his father did not think that pursuing studies in Shakespeare was beneficial and that father’s want their sons to do something substantial or real. Younger states, ““that is why fathers have to die: to make the world real for their sons.” This quote reminded me of Totem and Taboo. This Freudian text discussed the competitive nature between generations and spoke to human development as well as cultural/societal development. This passage certainly exemplifies the completion and resentment between fathers and sons, also serves another purpose. I believe this supports Freud’s ideas that this controversial desire is intrinsic within humans. We can see that the death of the father seems to serve a function of identity development. Rubenfeld almost implies that for and adult to truly be independent and understand the world the father must die. While as Freud’s focus in T & T was primary that of power and struggles that come with it, this quote almost has a positive undertone to it. To me this implies that the T&T power dynamic described by Freud indeed is an evolutionary trait as it can be seen to serve many social and developmental functions.

What makes this idea especially interesting for me is that Younger then compares this father-son relationship to transference, in many ways asking us to critique and the therapist- patient dynamic. The patient emotes onto the doctor and projects desires and wishes. Though these things my have substance, they are not real and just as a father must die for a son to enter reality, the patient therapist relationship must end for the person to enter the world as an autonomous being.  

I also believe Rubenfeld wants us to think about T&T through out the course of this book so that we can critically assess the power struggles that take place between the characters. By applying the T&T structure, we can see that Freud is the dominant father figure, with the rest either striving for his approval (or in Jung’s case) seeking to break free from him/ “kill him”. I believe also this why Hamlet remains a theme through out the book. Rubenfeld wants us to critically examine the relationships between psychotherapists using a psychoanalytic perspective. By identifying/ alluding to different power dynamics and family structures, Rubenfeld is inviting us to be critical of all characters, even Freud, and look at them both as scholars but also as people in conflict.