초자아와 이데올로기: 『프랑켄슈타인』

Superego and Ideology: Frankenstein

This paper aims to reveal the close cooperation between superego and ideology through Victor and Monster, in Frankenstein. Superego, explained by a dialectic between incestuous desire (with its Sadean voice ‘Enjoy’) and prohibition of incest, strengthens Kantian moral law. Prohibition stimulates desire to violate a law to attain the tabooed object. The stronger the prohibition, the greater the conflict between law and desire, and paradoxically the more the subject willingly observes the law. Superego, located deep inside the subject and demanding the observation of social rules, in opposition to desire, reinforces ideology. Ideology centers the individual, becomes a medium that forms an imaginary relationship between individual and society, and provides constant purpose and stable identity. The unstable empty individual (prior to the constraining influence of ideology) feels complete satisfaction but mistakes the fictional ideology as an “Object a,” that satisfies that lack. Both Victor and Monster, although antagonists, competitively pursue the 19C “Imperialistic Bourgeois Family” {IBF} ideology as their ego ideal. Victor denies Monster access to the IBF ideal. Monster threatens Victor’s personal family members and kills some of them in order to obtain his own family pursuing the forbidden IBF ideal. The more Victor bans Monster from acquiring a family, the more Monster’s desire is fortified. The family is increasingly idealized as the perfect satisfaction originally experienced from Mother’s Breast. Paradoxically however, their hostile struggle solidifies the IBF ideology. As Victor’s prevention and Monster’s desire become extreme, their superegos experience the “Jouissance” resulting from the pain they suffer from their conflict. They do not realize that the IBF image as an “Object a,” has been fabricated by colonizers to discriminate against “Otherized” peoples. They do not become aware until the last moment that the IBF image is just a deception fostering the illusion of original perfection. Superego actively engages in firmly stabilizing ideology as an “Object a” via the dialectic between law and desire.