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Poetic Renewal and Reparation in the Classroom: Poetry Therapy, Psychoanalysis, and Pedagogy with Three Victorian Poets

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Poetic Renewal and Reparation in the Classroom: Poetry Therapy, Psychoanalysis, and Pedagogy with Three Victorian Poets POETIC RENEWAL AND REPARATION IN THE CLASSROOM: POETRY THERAPY, PSYCHOANALYSIS, AND PEDAGOGY WITH THREE VICTORIAN POETS A dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Todd O. Williams December 2007 Dissertation written by Todd O. Williams B.A., Ohio University, 1998 M.A., University of New Mexico, 2001 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2007 Approved by Mark Bracher, Professor of English, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Ronald Corthell, Professor of English, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Tammy Clewell, Associate Professor of English Gene Pendleton, Associate Professor of Philosophy Nancy Docherty, Professor of Psychology Accepted by Ronald Corthell, Chair, Department of English John R.D. Stalvey, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………………………….……….v List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..vi Introduction: Poetry Therapy and its Relevance to the Classroom………………………..1 Part I: Poetic Renewal and Reparation Chapter I: Overcoming Defenses: Poetic Confrontation with the Ego………………….…8 Awareness through Poetry………………………………………………...8 Defenses as Obstacles……………………………………………………..9 Defense versus Coping..............................................................................13 Poetry the Anti-Defense……………………………………………….....18 II: Projective Identification in the Classroom I: Teacher/Student Dynamics……26 The Three Objects of the Classroom…………………………………….26 The Student/Teacher Relationship……………………………………….27 The Teacher as Good Object……………………………………………..33 Rejection, Placation, and Manipulation………………………………….39 III: Projective Identification in the Classroom II: Student/Text Dynamics……...49 Poetry as Transference Object…………………………………………...49 Poetry as Countertransference Object……………………………………58 Poetry and Reparation……………………………………………………63 IV: Poetic Regression and Awareness…………………………………………...68 Freud’s Primary Processes……………………………………………….68 Formal Regression: Rhythm and Metaphor…………………………...…74 V: Regression, Renewal, and Reparation in Lacan and Kristeva………………..82 Lacan and the Poem as Analyst………………………………………….82 Kristeva’s Semiotic Renewal…………………………………………….92 Kristeva’s Symbolic Reparation…………………………………………98 VI: Poetic Integration…………………………………………………………...105 Integration and the Three Registers…………………………………….105 Neuropsychoanalytic Integration……………………………………….112 iii The Poetic Self………………………………………………………….117 Part II: Applications to Literature, the Reader, and the Classroom VII: Three Therapeutic Approaches to Poetry in the Classroom……………….122 Brief Poetry Therapy Model……………………………………………122 Experiential Therapy Exercise………………………………………….130 Metaphor Therapy Exercise…………………………………………….141 VIII: Why Pre-Raphaelite Poetry?.......................................................................147 IX: Christina Rossetti: Language of Contemplation and Hope………………...156 Contemplation…………………………………………………………..156 Hope…………………………………………………………………….170 X: Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Desire, Mirrors, and Art…………………………...183 Meeting the Self………………………………………………………...183 Two Views of the (P)Art Object………………………………………..190 XI: William Morris: An Integrative Approach to the Early Dream Poems…….210 Morris’s Dream Poems…………………………………………………210 Image to Word, Word to Image………………………………………...215 Emotional and Imaginative Engagement……………………………….224 Personalizing Metaphors………………………………………………..235 Coda: “If I had Words”…………………………………………………………240 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………..243 iv List of Figures Figure 1…………………………………………………………………………………27 v List of Tables Table 1……………………………………………………………………………….....130 Table 2………………………………………………………………………………….140 Table 3………………………………………………………………………….………146 vi Introduction: Poetry Therapy and its Relevance to the Classroom From poetry therapy’s emergence as a field in the late 1960s, its practitioners have applied poetry to psychotherapy and used it in therapeutic practice. I propose the application of therapy to the way we understand and teach poetry. The work of poetry therapists, along with psychoanalytic theorists, offers important insights into the power of poetic language for the reader, which could prove useful to teachers and scholars of literature. Though therapy has different goals than literary studies, if we can integrate these goals of therapy with our goals as writers and teachers, we can make literary studies more beneficial to our students. The work and insights of poetry therapists can help us maximize the potentially beneficial dynamics of the relationship between reader and text. While our goals in academia will not coincide completely with those of therapists, and while we can only rarely, if ever, offer the kind of individual attention that therapists can offer their clients, we do share a belief in the value of literary works for people and for society as a whole. This approach to poetry necessarily involves a shift from the traditional focus on the meaning of a text toward a focus on the experience of a text. Arleen McCarthy Hynes and Mary Hynes-Berry point out that while poems and other literary works seek universal appeal, individual responses are not completely predictable (48). For the therapist, understanding the exact meaning of a work of literature carries no importance; only the 1 2 reader’s personal response matters. Arthur Lerner explains, “In poetry therapy the accent is on the person. In a poetry workshop the accent is on the poem” (81). In poetry therapy, “literature is a catalyst. The therapeutic effect depends on the response to the literature as it is facilitated through the dialogue, and the change takes place in the respondent” (Hynes 44). While we, as scholars, should remain concerned with context, structures, vocabulary, and other formal aspects of poetry, in order to understand how poetry works, we should emphasize the exploration of the experience of a poetic text on a more individual level, since this will prove valuable in aiding students in personal development and mental well-being. Teachers can make use of several of the various elements of poetry therapy in the classroom. In his introduction to the field, Nicolas Mazza describes three components of poetry therapy that we may consider. What he calls the “receptive/prescriptive” component is of primary concern to those in literary studies. This refers to the introduction of a pre-existing literary work into therapy; here we observe the value of a particular text for a particular reader. Mazza’s second component, the “expressive/creative” element, deals with clients writing poetry as a personal expression—akin to the loosening of speech, where inhibitions are released allowing for the free expression that ideally takes place in a psychoanalytic session. Teachers should encourage expressive writing in the classroom because it is extremely beneficial for students to respond creatively to the creative works of others. Mazza’s final component contains a possible element of the reader/text relationship. Mazza calls this the “symbolic/ceremonial,” focusing on the value of ritual, metaphor, and storytelling as they 3 can function as helpful ceremonies and symbolic acts for the client (17). After a loss, for example, one may read out loud a poetic elegy that may serve as a symbolic statement of acceptance. In terms of what we hope to achieve with this approach, Hynes and Hynes-Berry give an overview of the goals of poetry therapy, which provides a foundation for our goals in the classroom: improve individuals’ capacity to respond to texts through images, concepts, and feelings about them; increase self awareness; increase awareness of interpersonal relationships; and improve reality orientation (24). In relation to these goals, I focus on the concepts of personal renewal through heightened awareness and reparation of relationship schemas, which will serve as our ultimate goals for what we help students achieve through the study of poetry. By renewal, I mean helping students to develop strong but flexible egos. They can use poetry both to increase self awareness so that a new self emerges and to open up the self so that they may always continue to renew and discover new elements of themselves. By reparation, I mean using poetry to become more aware of the other and to develop empathy, which will lead to more productive social relations. Poetry offers readers recognition of emotional states, particularly negative ones that they may find uncomfortable or shameful. It offers heightened awareness of one’s self and one’s interpersonal objects, enabling more positive and efficient functioning within one’s environment. It helps people to “discover the truth of their own existence, enhance their creative and problem solving abilities, communicate and relate better to others, and experience the healing properties of beauty” (Gorelick 117-118). 4 Engagement with poetry may aid one in integrating one’s self and one’s experiences within emotional, imaginary, and symbolic registers—one’s visceral feelings, sensory mental images, and linguistic means to express them. Poetry also “integrates past- present-future states of being, challenges thought, [and] stimulates physiological and muscular response” (117). It can bring about productive change by challenging various existing mental schemas and offering alternatives. And poetry provides a vehicle to move one toward the ultimate goal of transcending negative and debilitating emotions, thoughts, and schemas by offering one possibilities for renewal of self and reparation
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