That Thing

Freud spent a great deal of his time on the unconscious and conscious mind. This cause caused him to develop many theories, some of which are still used in modern psychology and some that are better left forgotten. Whether Freud’s theories are true or not it does not diminish the work he did and how it changed the way we think today. It is plain to see that Freud had an influence on Peter Shaffer’s Equus because oh his use of Freud’s psychotherapy. Because of the traumatic nature of Alan’s attraction to horses a lot of the feelings and memories have been repressed, through Freud’s hypnosis techniques Dysart is able to get the information of Alan. This is not the only aspect of Freudian theory that can be found in the plays. Bits of Freud’s work can be found scattered across the play particularly his emphasis on how psychosis affects one’s sexual desires and preferences. It is certainly an understatement to say that Alan has very unusual sexual tendencies, but Freud has a theory that will explain it all. First through Freud’s theory of voyeurism it explain Alan’s loves for pictures, next through Freud’s on fetishes he explains how someone could be attracted to something other than another human and through his knowledge of bestiality; Freud can explain what lead Alan to be the way he is.

Voyeurism also known as scopophilia is the act of deriving sexual pleasure from looking at something (dictionary reference). Scopophilia starts out mainly in childhood; Laura Mulvey says that “the voyeuristic activities of children, their desire to see and make sure of the private and forbidden” (170 A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader) comes from a strict up bringing and strong sense of media censorship. Growing up Alan was not allowed to wa...

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...onceiving a baby they unspokenly told that intercourse with animals is bad. It’s a universal rule that everybody knows, so when someone has an attraction towards animals they keep it hidden. Children like Alan who have a very religious parent and a strict upbringing are told to keep their sexual lives to a minimal tend to be more attracted to animals because animals “hide so little of their sexual life” and tend to feel more “closely akin” (Freud 1970). Alan is envious of horses because they are, in his eyes, unapologetically sexual. Alan makes a comment that horses are contently nude and that aspect of horse life appeals to Alan, so he starts to associate himself with a horse in order to have the ability to feel sexually free. Since is started to equate himself to horses the idea of being physically attracted to horse doesn’t seem like as much of an abnormality.