A Psychoanalytic Study of Children Instinctual Aspirations and Desires and Social Boundaries in Charles Eze Nnaemeka’s Problem Child

Abstract

This paper explores children’s misdemeanours and antisocial behaviours as psychical causations stemming from the dictates of the human psyche espoused by Sigmund Freud in his topographic model of the structure of human personality in psychoanalysis. Anchored on this premise, the paper explicates the overarching influences of the id instinct (the pleasure principle instinct) undergirding unfettered aspirations and desires as well as the restraining functions of the ego and superego (the reality principle instincts) cum the attendant implications in Children’s literature with particular reference to Charlse Nnaemeka’s Problem Child. It explicitly delineates the overriding impulses of the id (the unconscious mind) towards the gratifications of its unfettered desires while undermining social norms and laws in its ideal characteristics while the ego (conscious mind) and superego (the social mores and laws) strive to ensure adherence to the socially shared values. It unveils how the perpetual struggle among these psychical compartments defines structure of human personality of the children characters Samson and Ngozi as propounded by Freud. Hence, the focus of the paper examines psychical causations beneath Samson’s and Ngozi’s overzealous aspirations and desires in conflict with the norms and mores of the society in the functions of ego and superego; the storehouse of social consciousness. In the same vein, it shows how antisocial behaviours and strives of Samson and Ngozi are expressed through psychoanalytic prism of defence mechanisms. The paper submits that Samson and Ngozi are malfeasants caused by the id instinct.