THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMATICS OF STEVENSON'S NOVELLA “THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE”

Abstract

The present paper is an attempt to reveal and present the characters in Stevenson’s novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in comparison with E.Bern’s transactional analysis uniting notary Utterson, who is introduced as an individual character, and Jekyll and Hyde couple into a single tandem. Each of these characters appears to be the integral part of one and the same personality.
Stevenson’s novella is considered to be the result of the writer’s imagination, inspiration and insight and has become a widely recognized example of disintegration, disassociation, split personality and of a social characteristic on the whole as well as of a psychological disorder of a victim of personality split. The author gives such a true picture of the essence of happenings and feelings that N.Mc-Williams considers “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” a piece of writing on disassociated personality disorder suitable even for those having no expertise in the field.
In its turn new psychological studies carried out by E. Fromm, E. Bern, St. Grof and others present theories and methods of analysis of psychology and behavior of an individual and they often serve as new landmarks in literary text analysis and interpretation.