Study on the Constitution of the Subject in the Work of Franz Kafka: A Psychoanalytic View

Abstract

This essay examines Franz Kafka's novel Letter to My Father from a psychoanalytic standpoint. Kafka presents a brave exposition of himself in the relationship he had with his father and the interference in his psychological development, with a significant self-biographical content. Some sections of this novel clearly address topics such as the Freudian theory of narcissism, the process of identification with parental figures, Oedipal characteristics, the formation of the Ego and its aspirations, and the significance of the Super Ego in the subject's formation. Sigmund Freud felt that we might approach the concerns of the human soul through literary texts. Freud makes numerous references to authors such as Goethe, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Sophocles throughout his extensive oeuvre. Human emotions and suffering are expressed via literary texts. The relationship between Franz Kafka's words and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis is quite evident in the text Letter to My Father, which is the subject of this study.