Psychological Analysis of the Story of Adam and Eve - Essay Example

Psychological Analysis of the Story of Adam and Eve In psychoanalytic theory, Eros and Thanatos are the two opposing forces which result from physical drives within the human being. Eros can be seen as the drive towards the other; unity and connection, while Thanatos is the drive towards the self: withdrawal, self-destruction and masochism. The secondary elements of the Ego, the Id, and the Super-ego are also important when trying to psychoanalyse the myth of the Original Sin. God in the Story of Adam and Eve represents both the forbidding Father, keeping his creations in ignorance.

In essence, he forbids them from sharing knowledge which he has himself; one could see this in the Oedipus Complex as the threatening father forbidding the son from knowledge of his mother. Interestingly, the Jewish story of God has a companion for him called Sophia 'Knowledge'. If God is the Oedipal father, then Sophia is the unobtainable mother. God is the mental 'superego', the judge or conscience. Adam is the Libido or Id. He is the human being of base desires; all this actions are inborn, and he lives in a state of gratification and simplicity.

Eve is symbolic of the ego, which is concerned with the external reality, and the balance between physical desire and mental processes. Adam's knowledge is filtered through her; and where as Adam is unified with God's will, having no ego of his own, Eve is independent, her will is self-will, and Adam's is the will of the Other. Lucifer, as the serpent, is the symbol of a human being coming to consciousness, moving away from his parent, and beginning to reach out beyond the limitations of the Father.

The serpent can be seen as the one who brings Adam and Eve out of the oedipal complex, and into the mental processes of Eros and Thanatos. In the story of Genesis, God is the Forbidding Father, or Thanatos, closely connected to the death drive; He represses the knowledge and understanding of Adam. While he allows Adam to move along in ignorance of his vulnerability (as the Death Drive can allow the damaged human to function through processes such as Sado-Masochism or even schizophrenia, he keeps Adam in the Garden of Eden; Adam is in thrall to the Will of God.

Eve can be seen as Eros; she is Adam's unification and cohesion. She springs from his own body, and is a part of him. It is she that reaches out for enlightenment through the Apple of Knowledge, and it is she that brings Adam out from the thrall of Thanatos, and the ignorance of his own nakedness. She is love, and the Serpent is symbolic of her sexual drive, bringing Adam to knowledge of his own body. Thanatos punishes the sex drive of the Id and Ego by casting them out of bliss, and into toil and struggle.

God and Eve can be seen as the struggle between the two opposed forces of Love and Death. Knowledge brings the human being to understanding of his physical body, and freedom from the Oedipus complex. Why do Adam and Eve hide from God when they realise they are vulnerable God has seen them naked many times before. Like the child emerging from the Oedipus complex, they fear that the Father will recognise the new knowledge and understanding they possess, and punish them. In Oedipal fear, it is the genitals that are threatened by the punishment, and in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve cover these parts with leaves (or disguise their genitals perhaps).