Sigmund Freud in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”affirms that in our psychic apparatus there coexist pulsions with opposite purposes influencing human actions “EROS AND THANATOS”. The lively pulsion leads to a sexual satifaction or the inner instict of self-preservation , on the contrary the pulsions related to death there are kept like aggressive behaviours towards the others and the self itself -
Freud was the first to theorize the deep anxiety each human being is supposed to face in the constant choice between good and evil: it is fundamental to reach a balance so that to preserve a sane psiche-
In “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”R.L.Stevenson pictures the great repression implemented by both the strict Victorian society and the character himself whose Super ego produces a wicked and violent personality emerging from the obscurity , a place where it was blocked into the most unconscious sphere of psyche. The theme of the double personality is developed inside a microscosm -the “lab”- contrasting the macrocosm outside where Jekyll apparently live as his very repressed soul explodes into violence and “the horrible” showing a sick psychic dimension which nowadays is well shown in socially perfect personalities which abuse or commit crimes against women they say to love .
According to M.F.Hirigoyen the “double” is typical in cases of violence, in this sense she focuses on the relationship manipulator/victim, the majority of abuses is related to women close to men with double personality- Manipulators only care of themselves especially preserving their facade which must be always appreciated, socially accepted , actually it is a mask never seized as imperfect or guilty ! They need to control everyone without scruples in “using” other people like means towards their targets. They have a split personality but they are not “sick” , rather they are wholly balanced and aware when they throw their perversion at their victims, as we can see in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde..
Manipulators are considered pschologically as vampires, they are able to destroy the designed victim by sucking “her/his” energy, strength and gaiety just because they themselves are not happy or capable of the same strentgh. They don’t know any remorse or repentance, they deny anything, great architects in planning a conflict charging the other to be aggressive. They don’ t feel sufference , affection or true love, and yet they cry and lament when they are going to lose their power, paradoxically they live a double life preserving their integrity in mind and emotions till the final discovery as in Mr Hyde..
M.F.Hirigoyen defines these split men between “perversion and niceness” as cruel without apparent evidence , they identify their victims as sufficient strong to sustain their violence and weak enough- as the victim loves- to not escape them. The perverse is supposed to do everything so that the victim turns to be as an abuser, he likes inverting the situation to show the other - “the foil”-is a violent, as if they were on the stage.
In “Psycho” Norman Bates kills the woman identifying himself with his mother, because any woman represents the evil , just because one peculiarity of the perverse is to charge the victim/woman (I want to define the woman as a victim stastically proved by contemporary events and studies) with immorality: to reach this he is an excellent designer in making her lose the sense of an acceptable moral level.
They are absolutely sure to be sane and to control their impulses,so that they refuse any therapy or help, as we can focus on the reaction of Dr Jekyll who convinces himself to be able to end experiments and remain the doctor he is any time he likes, metaphorically able to limit his perverse impulses and capable to jump into the evilish part and getting out whenever he likes, as modern split personality men are used to do “inside a love affair” where love is a feeling belonging only to the victim not to them.
Hyde kills for the pleasure of committimg murders, the split personality destroys his victim for personal pleasure in hurting and injuring, in order to maintain control and power over everyone: debated theme , troubles inside the double of “everyone” as Shakespeare affirms in his plays , especially in the tragedies, going back to the ancient culture as in Ovidio, where the “double” is “Illusion” to meet the true self through the mirror image reflected in the water…
part 2..