IDENTIFYING SELF-CONCEPTUALIZATION: PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPTS OF TRAUMA TRACED IN IT ENDS WITH US (2016)

Abstract

The research aims to study women's traumatic experiences from their partners that increase the threat to their existence which demoralizes their strength to self-conceptualize. The study explores the idea of self-conceptualization in women through the theoretical lenses of Carl Roger’s theory of self-conceptualization, particularly in the novel It Ends with Us (2016). Self-conceptualization is the tendency to self-actualize. This framework is fused with psychoanalytical feminism, borrowing the idea from Kate Millet that men have institutional power over women and are not inherited. Given, this idea further develops a nexus with Judith Herman’s trauma theory to critically analyze the characters of the novel, particularly the women characters; and discuss how their (traumatized) past experiences affect their lives. The analysis drawn highlights the transformation of women who attain self-conceptualization through their bitter experiences and transform it into their strength.