Ernest Hemingway's short stories are particularly noted for their ambiguity and brevity, and the short story collection entitled In Our Time contains many of these powerfully minimalist stories. One character who appears in two separate stories is Dr. Adams, the father of Nick Adams, who is the main character in many other short stories. Dr. Adams features in both "Indian Camp" and "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," and Dr. Adams makes a strong impression in each of these stories. As Hemingway often leaves the character's thoughts and actions open to interpretation, Dr. Adams is a prime candidate to be evaluated in psychoanalytic criticism. Modern psychology, although a relatively new and still widely debated field of science, focuses not on how people do certain things, but on why. Most people would agree that modern psychology began with Sigmund Freud in the early 1900s. Freud proposed many theories in this field, some of which are still respected today and others which have been largely forgotten. Freud's most important work concerns his belief in the subconscious – a place that, even if we are not aware of it, secretly plays a role in the things we say, do and even dream. Since then, psychology has continued to grow and develop thanks to B.F. Skinner, Pavlov, Maslow, and other contributors who have continued to evolve Freud's initial thoughts and make major strides toward understanding why humans act and react in certain ways. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayA method of psychological criticism concerns the psychoanalysis of a character in the text. This will bring the character's motivations and desires to the forefront and allow readers to better understand the character. In order to effectively perform psychological criticism in terms of a character in a text, the critic must be both creative and have a general knowledge of psychological terms in order to "diagnose" the character, which will ultimately allow one to understand the motivations of the character. the foreground. Through a psychoanalysis of Dr. Adams' actions and reactions, I will attempt to prove that Dr. Adams suffers from borderline personality disorder (BD), characterized by his marital problems, his masculinity problems, and his anger and aggressiveness. Adams appears in two of Hemingway's stories: "Indian Camp" and "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife." For the purposes of my analysis, I will focus primarily on "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", although I will use other Nick Adams stories to support my claims throughout. "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" opens with a group of Native American men, including Dick Boulton, coming to cut logs for Dr. Adams. The logs had fallen from a boom that was transporting them from the factory. Dr Adams says this means they are driftwood and therefore up for grabs. So he took them and hired the Native Americans to cut them up for him. When Dick Boulton finds that the logs came from a local logging company, he accuses Dr. Adams of stealing them. Angered, Dr. Adams told Dick and the other men that they should just leave if they wanted to accuse him of theft. Dr. Adams then threatens Dick Boulton: “....I'm going to sink my teeth down your throat” (Hemingway 25). After this argument, Dr. Adam enters his room (interestinglynote that he does not share a room with his wife), and he immediately begins cleaning a shotgun. After a brief conversation with his wife, Dr. Adams comes out and he and his son, Nick, go for a walk looking for black squirrels. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, borderline personality disorder is characterized by the following: Personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental disorder marked by a pattern of ongoing instability in mood, behavior , self-image and functioning. These experiences often result in impulsive actions and unstable relationships. A person with BPD may experience intense episodes of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last from just a few hours to a few days. Some people with BPD also have high rates of co-occurring mental disorders, such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders, as well as substance abuse, self-harm, thoughts and suicidal behavior and suicide (NIMH 2016). The disorder is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Officially recognized personality dysfunctions are listed in the table above. With these symptoms and criteria in mind, I will attempt to rationalize Dr. Adams' actions and reactions in order to prove that Dr. Adams suffers from an undiagnosed case of borderline personality disorder. The first symptom displayed by Dr. Adams is his engaging behavior. in risky behavior. Dr. Adams does not own the logs he brought to be cut by Native Americans. Hemingway says that Dr. Adams "assumed" he could take them, meaning he knew it might have been a theft, which indeed indicates participation in risky behavior. This indulgence in risky behavior fulfills number 4 on the DMV's list of diagnostic criteria. Afterwards, Dr. Adams quickly becomes angry when he is called out for taking the journals. His anger comes quickly and he soon threatens to become violent, promising to sink his teeth down her throat. His anger seems not only misplaced, but excessive. According to The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, this event calls into question Dr. Adams' masculinity (Benson 35). Additionally, when Dr. Adams enters the house and explains that he had an argument with Dick Boulton, his wife responds, "I hope you didn't get angry" (Hemingway 25). The doctor's wife's response indicates that Dr. Adams has a tendency to lose his temper quite regularly. This type of quick and potentially violent anger is number 8 on the list of symptoms. Symptom number 2 on the list involves a set of problems in interpersonal relationships. There are several context clues in "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" as well as clues elsewhere in In Our Time that indicate that Dr. Adams has a less than satisfactory home life. In "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", we learn that Dr. Adams and his wife do not share a room, since Hemingway says that she was "in his bed" while he was sitting "on his bed" ( 26). His wife also seems to demean him, intentionally or not: first, by adopting a motherly and authority tone with him ("Tell me, Henry. Please don't try to hide anything from me." either” [26]) and then saying that his hypothesis is clearly wrong [“‘Dear, I don’t think, I really don’t think that anyone would intentionally do such a thing’” (26)]. Later, in "The Three-Day Blow", Nick calls Bill's father a "great guy", then immediately says that his "old man” is “fine” (Hemingway 44). The implication here is that Nick has a better opinion of Bill's father than of his own. Although none of the news stories openly discuss Dr. Adams' relationships with his wife and son, several contextual clues may lead us to the conclusion that none of these relationships are necessarily positive. This could indicate that Dr. Adams has difficulty maintaining relationships, even with the people he should be closest to. After Dr. Adams' brief argument with Dick and his conversation with his wife, Dr. Adams retires to his room where he takes his time first cleaning his shotgun, then he sits down and pumps all the cartridges out of it, only to charge it and then pump them again. There are two possibilities as to what this could mean, and either would fall into the category of impulsivity and potentially risky behavior. The first possibility is that having easy access to the gun and the fact that it is the first place he turns when angry is evidence that Dr. Adams may be mentally unstable. He immediately leaves an argument and goes to get his gun: this could be seen as a sign not only of aggression, but also possibly of the threat of violence. On the other hand, it's possible that Dr. Adams' shotgun ritual is a euphemism for masturbation. According to the article “Trophy Hunting as a Trope of Manliness in Ernest Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa,” pumping shotgun shells is a “masturbatory display of phallic power” (Strychacz 168). This theory makes sense: considering that Dr. Adams has not only been humiliated by Dick Boulton, but he has also just been emasculated by his wife. What better way to remind himself that he is a man than by acting as only a man can? Additionally, Hemingway uses several word choices that could indicate a possible double meaning at work here. For example, Hemingway gives the reader an image of Dr. Adams “pumping” the rifle and the shotgun shells “spilling on the bed” (26). Hemingway also makes sure to tell his readers that Dr. Adams is “very fond of” them (26). Whether this is a sign of aggression or gentlemen's masturbation, Dr. Adams' actions in this scene are clearly questionable and leave a lot of room for interpretation. Either he is so angry that he entertains the idea of ​​shooting Dick Boulton, or he is so emasculated that he impulsively goes straight to self-stimulation, one of his possible vices. As it stands, there are enough cases of personality deficiency to satisfy this category. of the DSM diagnostic guide. However, this is only the first step. The next step in being able to correctly establish that Dr. Adams has borderline personality disorder is to access possible deficiencies in interpersonal functioning. The way to uncover interpersonal deficiencies is to see if any of the following are present: lack of empathy or lack of intimacy. Although only one interpersonal skill needs to be impaired to get a diagnosis, Dr. Adams is poor in both categories, which is typical for someone with borderline personality disorder. According to the DSM, empathy is defined as “the ability to recognize the feelings and needs of others,” an interpersonal skill that Dr. Adams undoubtedly lacks. The best example of this shortcoming can be seen in the short story “Indian Camp”. In this short story, Dr. Adams goes to the Indian reservation to help a young Native American woman who has been unsuccessfully trying to give birth for days. Dr. Adams and Nick arrive to help the woman. The Dr.. 36-47.