A Thousand Splendid Suns- Psychoanalytic research essay

 Mariam and Laila, the two lead protagonists of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns display the Fruedian psychoanalytic theory of Transference and Resistance when acting upon their decisive processes of Laila’s hope and perseverance in contrast to Mariam's sacrifice and noble humility. In Psychoanalysis, we treat troubling mental conditions by investigating the interaction of both conscious and unconscious elements of the mind while simultaneously surfacing repressed fears and intrusive thoughts with various therapy methods, such as dream analysis and Transference therapy. The two women in abusive circumstances have used psychoanalysis as a resource for making sense of the social upheavals of the century, especially those involving gender relations, sexuality, and family life. 

According to the Debatable Austrian Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his mentor Josef Breuer, the term transference is a term referring to unknowingly transferring feelings about someone or something from their past onto their empathically attuned therapist to test their client's perception of reality, While Counter-transference, on the other hand, is the therapist’s reaction and line of treatment to the projections of the client. Over the years, this method has gone under scrutiny for its ethics and mere violation of professional boundaries. But despite this, Transference can be seen in countless social-relational situations and exchanges. If we like Mariam, were raised in an unaccepting and emotionally neglectful environment our reaction to love could result in an initial reaction of shock and disbelief but in some cases will evolve to acceptance and the protection of such a relationship (Mariam and Aziza). The mundane act of an infant curling their fingers around your finger is an act of transference because the reaction of this would exponentially explain how we react to someone “wanting” us. 

Sequentially, Psychoanalysis is closely surrounded by the learning theory of Social constructivism, that knowledge is all socially situated and purely garnered from our interactions with others. In review, the rigid difference between Mariam and Laila’s upbringings merely defines their response to abuse. Yet, while Laila learns from Mariam to be tolerant and submissive for the sake of survival, Mariam learns from Laila what true love and friendship look like. This is the factor that sets Laila free and Mariam to her fateful grave. In that argument from the pro-constructionist position, understanding is not automatically driven by the forces of nature, but instead the result of an active, cooperative enterprise of persons in a relationship. Neurobiologically, victims of abusive conditioning learn that survival is a need that tops emotional needs and love according to Maslow,s model of the Hierarchy of needs. If becoming silent and submissive keeps you from beatings or any negative consequences your abuser may inflict, you will achieve that conformity for the sake of survival, even if it damages your psyche in the long term. The priority after Rasheed’s business burns down is survival or primal motivations. 

In this light, Rasheed's aversion towards Aziza unmasks in one, his preference towards his son, but his misogyny and belief that she is not biologically his. When it’s revealed Rasheed lied about Tariq’s death, it is underlined that Laila only stayed with Rasheed because she falsely thought she had nowhere else to go. Mariam only stayed with Rasheed because she really had no choice. “Recent research on IPA indicates that women remain chained to the dangerously controlled and maintained relationship despite its social and psychological repercussions. Exitance of Intimate Partner Abuse has been seen through the lens of criminal activity. Therefore, the perpetuation of IPA is linked to the psychotic and criminal intentions of the perpetrator” (According to  Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of the Institute of Science and Technology) Once these fundamental reasons set the characters to the point they are in, their rationale and cognitive balances can be dissected further. More significantly, Rasheed may subconsciously feel intimidated and jealous of Azizaś's real father; Tariq. As a matter of fact, After Mariam faithfully turns herself into the Taliban after the ¨Murder¨ of Rasheed, Mariam realizes she has a complete life. In narration “and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last.” (chapter 47, pg. 370) She realizes her worth despite it all. This should be described as the theory of Eros, the life instinct and the forces of the ego of the organized, logic-driven part of a person’s psyche that mediates desires and love. She could have irrationally joined Laila on her escape, but the power of the Eros led her to decide otherwise. This power of thinking is demonstrated in people that have healthy attachment styles and have been raised in relatively positive environments growing up in both pre-cognitive stages (as infants and young children) all the way to the age of abstract and hypothetical thinking. Though logically rational, Mariam’s line of thinking reveals she does not consider herself to be worthy enough over Rasheed’s life. She still owes the debt of taking another one’s life. 

Alternatively, After Mariam faithfully turns herself in for the “murder” of Rasheed, Mariam experiences a vid and thoughtful review of her life. “Mariam had disjointed dreams that last night. She dreamed of pebbles, eleven of them, arranged vertically. Jalil, young again, all winning smiles and dimpled chins and sweat patches, coat flung over his shoulder, come at last to take his daughter away in his shiny black Buick Roadmaster. Mullah Fazullah twirled his rosary beads, walking with her along the stream, their twin shadows gliding on the water and on the grassy banks sprinkled with a blue lavender wild iris that, in this dream smelled like cloves. She dreamed of Nana in the doorway of the kolba, her voice is dim and distant, calling her to dinner as Mariam played in the cool tangled grass.” (Hosseini, pg. 223) In a review of this dream, Mariam is visiting a time in her life when she felt contempt, but altering the roles of her parents to be modified to her liking. Her father Jalil is closer and more attentive and her mother is farther from tainting Mariam’s heart with disappointing truths. All along Mariam suffered the consequences of another’s grief. Nana took out her disdain and sense of pain caused by the rejection she faced in her life for her having an illegitimate child with her employer. Then Jalil took out his grief on losing his child and his ex-wife on Mariam, especially after she could not naturally conceive another son for him. 

In Summary, with Psychoanalysis and its pragmatic theory of human thought and contemplation, Mariam and Laila’s friendship serve to explain the difference between their behavioral thought and cognition. From Mariam’s sacrifice and Laila’s escape. The unfair disadvantages the two characters had over each other can make up for the reason, they both had the fate the other one did not. Despite it all, they cared for each other, and all behaviors and intrinsic motivations led to their leaving Rasheed but in two different directions. 

Sources:

"Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Researchers Report Research in Sustainable Business and Society (Critical Discourse Analysis of Trauma Bonding in Female Victims of Intimate Partner Abuse: A Phenomenological ...)." Women's Health Weekly, 16 Mar. 2023, p. 6156. Gale General OneFile Custom, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A740884220/GPS?u=j015901&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=f2ed7034. Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.

Mead HK, Beauchaine TP, Shannon KE. Neurobiological adaptations to violence across development. Dev Psychopathol. 2010 Winter;22(1):1-22. doi: 10.1017/S0954579409990228. PMID: 20102643; PMCID: PMC2813461. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2813461/A