There are four psychic structures that govern the cause of a person’s thoughts and actions. They are hysteria, obsessional neurosis, perversion, and psychosis. Many characters in literature exemplify these structures. Some are Norman Bates from Joseph Stefano’s Psycho, Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana, Eliza in John Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums and Madame Arcati in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit. Norman Bates shows symptoms of psychosis, Lawrence Shannon shows signs of hysteria and perversion, Elisa show signs of hysteria, and lastly, Madame Arcati shows signs of neurosis. All of these characters show symptoms of these mental structures through their different ways of thinking. Philip Hill defines a psychotic person …show more content…
The hallucinations are usually accompanied by grandiose and persecutory ideas” (109). The main problem with psychotic people is that they do not understand that there are things that should be repressed. Also, “Lacan argues that the psychotic structure has been there all along” (Grigg 14). This means that a person can be psychotic without showing any signs of the mental illness until a trigger causes the signs to be visible. A trigger could be a traumatic or strange event in a person’s life. For Norman Bates the trigger was most likely the death of his mother. Bates exhibits signs of psychosis is many ways. One way is the way he gives half of his personality to his dead mother. He believes that she still lives through him. Towards the end of the screen play he even says “I am Norma Bates” while dressed up as his mother (Stefano 45). Also later when he is in custody at the police station the reader hears the mother’s voice in Norman’s head. She says, “It is sad when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son... but I could not allow them to believe I would commit murder” (103). His “mother” told the police that …show more content…
Lawrence Shannon shows signs of hysteria as well as perversion. Hysteria is a result of too much repression. He shows signs of hysteria when he is talking to Maxine about the ladies on the bus. Saying how they are all very demanding of him. He then goes on to talk about the chef he imported all by himself. He says, “Look at this sample menu. The cook is a Chinese imported from Shanghai by me! Sent here by me, year before last, in nineteen thirty-eight” (Williams 38). He continues to talk about how tired he is from doing this tour. He fails to act on his own desires because he thinks everyone is so demanding of him. Elisa also shows signs of hysteria in John Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums. She does this because she feels that she has to conform to the stereotypes that the men in her life have put on her. Her husband, Henry, says “Why--why, Elisa. You look so nice!” She then questions him about the comment he just made. “Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by 'nice'” (Steinbeck 29)? She is worried about what he said because she feels that she should always look nice. She thinks that her husband expects her to always look nice so she is worried as to why he is mentioning it now. She does not really know her own desires because she is always worried about her husband’s