Stephen’s neurotic self-estrangement: A case study of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Abstract

This article examines neurosis in the personality of Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a means to understand his intellectual and artistic development. Although Joyce’s fictional characters have been studied from various psychoanalytic perspectives, the psycho-neurotic aspect of these characters – particularly Stephen – has been largely overlooked. We use Karen Horney’s theory of neurosis as an analytic device to reveal how Stephen’s self-estrangement and neurotic personality bring about his successful evolution as a creative artist, suggesting that Stephen moves away from other people because of his neurotic need of perfection, self-sufficiency and narrow limits on his life. The uncertainty of these needs leads Stephen to become hostile to his society, as he is estranged from it. Consequently, he adopts a detached personality. His self-estrangement leaves Stephen neurotic inasmuch as it increases his artistic power.