Hamlets Enemy

by Theodore Lidz

An analysis of the role and importance of madness, as character trait and theme, in Hamlet, of literary and mythic sources and analogues, and of the resulting implications for psychoanalytic psychology

Genres: Nonfiction

258 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Vel Veeter]

This is a book of ostensible literary criticism, but it’s not written by a critic or a writer (of literature). Instead, this is a study of “madness” in Hamlet, from the perspective of a psychologist. And well, there’s some issues with that when it comes do to it. This is from the mid-1970s and it feels like it, although a book like this could certainly still be written today. There’s a kind of scholarship to it, but like with a lot of works in which someone’s expertise in one field is somewhat misapplied to a new field, this book suffers from missing the target. More broadly, because this book is written from the 1970s, the very psychology itself has shifted. It’s out of date, and also off target.

For me, it’s also an issue to look for the clinical in art because of, well, art. Would you try to diagnose a skin malady from a painting? Maybe, but it couldn’t be confirmed. And so looking for specific diagnoses in old literature leads to some issues as well. The biggest problem of course is that the book just isn’t very interesting. It offers good analysis of line-readings, but not in any kind of extraordinary depth. Instead, it feels like a passion project or a vanity project of a smart person and an expert in one field, playing out a fun theory in another field they don’t know enough about to really work with.

[Alexie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, especially as it includes theories that I have studied but in a more in-depth way. This has been a great help for my upcoming essay as it mentions exactly what I am looking for. Books like this definitely help if you struggle with classic/old texts, when I read Hamlet for this module I didn't enjoy it but the analytical side of it makes it a lot clear.