Friedrich, Steffen (2019) the Death Instincts in the Life and Works of Heinrich Von Kleist
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Friedrich, Steffen (2019) The death instincts in the life and works of Heinrich von Kleist. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/39049/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Death Instincts in the Life and Works of Heinrich von Kleist Steffen Friedrich Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philospophy School of Modern Languages and Cultures College of Arts University of Glasgow October 2018 © Steffen Friedrich Table of Contents The Death Instincts in the Life and Works of Heinrich von Kleist Acknowledgments Abstract Abbreviations Page No. Introduction 5 Part I Chapter 1 - Freud and the Death Instincts 24 Chapter 2 - Death and the Romantic Imagination 47 Chapter 3 - Kleist’s Kant Crisis 69 Part II Chapter 4 - Penthesilea: Psychosis and Anthropophagy 102 Chapter 5 - Prinz Friedrich von Homburg: An Oedipal Affair 128 Chapter 6 - Michael Kohlhaas: Narcissistic Rage and the Empowerment of Helplessness 146 Chapter 7 - Das Erdbeben in Chili: The Sadistic Impulse and the Divine Child 177 Chapter 8 - Die Verlobung in St. Domingo: Hate and Repetition Compulsion 192 Chapter 9 - Der Findling: The Replaced Child in a Dystopian World 214 Conclusion 237 Glossary 245 Bibliography 247 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my primary supervisor, Professor Paul Bishop, who has guided me with a light hand through the morass of footnotes and structure while also enabling me to learn from my own mistakes. I have felt free to express, with confidence, ideas that may be seen as controversial through his constant presence and his guidance. My gratitude extends too, to Professor Patrick O’Donnell, my second supervisor who retired from the lists before this thesis was completed, but whose unfailing support in matters of clinical theory was helpful while he was present. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Morag Greig and the staff of the University of Glasgow library who went to extraordinary lengths to ensure that I, a long distance student, would have access to appropriate libraries for research material. My thanks extends too, to my friend, Gillian Flinter, and my colleague and friend, Jo Outram, for sterling work in editing and improving my text, a task which proved to be more involved than I had promised but which they undertook with aplomb. Needless to say, any errors in the text were introduced post-editing and are mine. Thanks too, to my friend and IT consultant, Charlie Standing, without whose help this thesis would have ended in cyperspace, several times. Finally, I also wish to extend my feelings of gratitude and love to my wife Hilary who has been a thesis-widow for the past five years. She has borne this fate without complaint and has supported and encouraged me in the dark times, which overcomes anyone engaged in a five year task. Hilary has read and commented on my work with acute intelligence and it is a privilege to have had her by my side. Abstract This thesis is based on a psychological interpretation of the life and works of Heinrich von Kleist. The basis of the interpretation is the death instincts as formulated by Sigmund Freud in Jenseits des Lustprinzips (Beyond the Pleasure Principle) and is extended with the work of Melanie Klein, D.W. Winnicott and other authors who subscribe to the psychoanalytic school; use is made, too, of C.G Jung’s analytical psychology. Part I discusses Freud’s paper which deals principally with the repetition compulsion, pathological aggression, sado-masochism, hate and the biological basis of programmed cell death. The thesis then extends the concept of the death instinct to those psychological paradigms which inhibit an authentic life such as psychosis, narcissism and unresolved Oedipal issues. It examines the belief in the Romantic ethos of the corporeal afterlife which makes death both a fearless state and provides the possibility of reuniting with one’s love object. I argue that Kleist’s confrontation with the subjectivity of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy provides a fulcrum in Kleist’s life which freed him from the idea of the perfectibility of his own life but also, for him, destabilised language as an adequate means to achieve the symbiotic closeness he needed. Part II of the thesis discusses the congruence of Freud’s theories with Kleist’s stories, plays and letters. The sources of psychosis are examined which lead to cannibalism in Penthesilea and hate and the repetition compulsion in Verlobung in St. Domingo: both result in death. This, too, is the fate of the eponymous hero of Michael Kohlhaas. He descends into pathological narcissism and his only recourse at the nadir of his life, to satisfy his sense of self, is to resurrect the revenant of his deceased wife who provides satisfactory supernatural assistance. By contrast, more positive themes are found in Prinz Friedrich von Homburg and Das Erdbeben in Chili. In the former a resolution of Oedipal issues leads to a satisfactory outcome for the Prinz and in the latter, the citizens of St. Domingo are offered a Christ figure, the Divine Child, to counter endemic sadism. Kleist’s last story, Der Findling, provides a nihilistic criticism of social and religious mores which reflects his own attitude to his times. The thesis concludes with a summary of its themes and a discussion of Kleist’s meeting with Henriette Vogel, his partner in suicide into whom he projected his achievements and failures which facilitated a longed for symbiotic closeness in his passage to becoming todesreif (ripe for death). Abbreviations Kleist Heinrich von Kleist: Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, 4 vols. ed. by Ilse-Marie Barth, Klaus Müller-Salget, Walter Müller-Seidel, Stefan Ormans and Hinrich C. Seeba (Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1987- 1997). Quotations from prose works are identified by volume and page number(s); quotations from plays are identified by volume number, lower case roman numerals for act numbers (where appropriate) and line number(s). GW Sigmund Freud Gesammelte Werke:chronologisch geordnet, 18 vols. ed. by Anna Freud (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1952-1968). The references are given initially as the date of first publication, the title of the book or paper, volume number and page number(s) and subsequently as date of first publication, volume number and page number(s). SW Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 24 vols. trans. and ed. by James Strachey in collaboration with Anna Freud, assisted by Alix Strachey, Alan Tyson and Angela Richards (London: Hogarth Press, 1955-1974). The references are given initially as the title of the book or paper, volume number and page number(s) and subsequently as volume number and page number(s). Finally, all English translations of Freud’s Gesammelte Werke are taken from the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. All other translations from the German are mine and any failure is my responsibility. 5 Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the concept of the death instincts, formulated by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in Jenseits des Lustprinzips (Beyond the Pleasure Principle), can be applied to the life and works of Heinrich von Kleist (1777- 1811).1 In Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (Civilisation and its Discontents), Freud discussed the frustrations which arise from the imposition of culture and how these frustrations, causing internal stress, are relieved by damage which we may do to ourselves.2 It is manifest in a drive towards chaos and dissolution, which shows itself in self-destructive behaviour such as drunkenness, speeding, self-harming or the momentary desire, when standing at the edge of a platform, to hurl oneself into the path of a train thundering into the station. Finally, death is the satisfaction of the death instincts. These manifestations of the death instincts are, thus, present in all of us and, to a particular degree, in Kleist’s work. The vicissitudes of the death instincts are also evident in his repeated requests to family members and friends to die with him. Moreover, Kleist lived in turbulent times of social and international unrest: the rise of the middle classes brought a new influence into social discourse and the Napoleonic wars destabilised existing national structures. This fluidity, as well as Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) philosophy, which destabilised the individual’s relationship to the external world, affected Kleist deeply. Further, the mention of death constellates a complex, a feeling toned image or idea, which we do our utmost to avoid. Freud argues this theme, with the conclusion, that in death, we believe that we are still sentient: Wenn man uns anhörte, so waren wir natürlich bereit zu vertreten, daß der Tod der notwendige Ausgang alles Lebens sei, daß jeder von uns der Natur einen Tod schulde und vorbereitet sein müsse, die Schuld zu bezahlen, kurz, daß der Tod natürlich sei, unableugbar und unvermeidlich. In Wirklichkeit pflegten wir uns aber zu benehmen, als ob es anders wäre. Wir haben die unverkennbare Tendenz gezeigt, den Tod beiseite zu schieben, ihn aus dem Leben zu eliminieren. Wir haben versucht, ihn totzuschweigen; wir besitzen ja auch das Sprichwort: man denke an etwas wie an den Tod.