Abstract

SOUSA, Lívia Mesquita de  and  VIANA, Terezinha Camargo. The exterior soul in Machado de Assis: a psychoanalytic view. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.3, pp.1083-1111. ISSN 1518-6148.

The notion of exterior soul is a notion that frequently appears in the works of Machado de Assis, indicating the importance given to the look of the other on the ego. The themes: social mobility, social hierarchy, titles, appearance and social status relate to the exterior soul notion and also frequently appear in the novels and short stories of Machado de Assis. This paper aims to relate Machado de Assis exterior soul and some Freud concepts: ego, ideal ego/superego and narcissism, in order to demonstrate their affinity with the notion brought by Machado de Assis. Both, Freudian concepts and the exterior soul notion are discussed in the perspective of their potential to clarify the relationship between subjectivity and culture. Ego's formation requires introjections of objects through a mechanism of identification with the parents, when not only the parents values, but also, social values are converted in permanent parts of subjectivity. The exterior soul notion has the property of relating interior and exterior in human beings, as it is, at the same time, soul, which can be named psychic or subjectivity, and exterior, once it is related to something in the individual that can be observed, analyzed or appreciated by the others.

Keywords : Psychoanalysis; literatura; Machado de Assis; subjectivity; society.

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