Well, in The Chosen, Danny Saunders, from the heart of his religious reading of the world, encounters an element in the very heart of the secular readings of the world - Freudian psychoanalytic theory.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A poetic, sensitive, tortured soul, the Ian Curtis of the myth - he was definitely that.
I'm entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they're thinking and who they are and who's hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what's the story, really?
The novelist, quite rightly, fears the psychoanalyst as both an enemy and a usurper.
I would say of characters I've created, the one I've felt the most connected to emotionally was Adam Austin from 'The Prophet.' I think it was the connection to the idea that one decision you make innocently enough can have very serious, drastic consequences for someone else's life.
Between the ages of 24 and 27, I read Freud's complete works, everything that had been translated into English. It was very stimulating intellectually. But I did not accept his view of neurosis or of human nature.
George Saunders is a complete genius.
Psychoanalysis is out, under a therapeutic disguise, to do away entirely with the moral faculty in man.
I was fascinated by a compelling character embroiled in a controversial topic that told the story from a different point of view.
Freud was a hero. He descended to the Underworld and met there stark terrors. He carried with him his theory as a Medusa's head which turned these terrors to stone.
The most influential thinker, in my life, has been the psychologist Richard Nisbett. He basically gave me my view of the world.