Lennie and George As Manifestations of CathexisAnd Anti-Cathexis in of Mice and Men

The ultimate goal of this paper is to unveil the unintentional depiction of two dominantpsyche forces that have been coined by sigmund freud in his economic model as cathexis andanti-cathexis in the form of the characters lennie and george in john steinbeck’s of mice andmen. lennie is the manifestation of cathexis or the pleasure principle, while anti-cathexis or thereality principle has been manifested in george whose duty is to contain lennie in order to keephim safe from any harm by stopping him from doing actions that violate the norms and codes ofthe external world or society. unaware of the vitriolic penalties of violating social norms andcodes, lennie’s boldest desire is to break them. on the other hand, george is capable ofrecognizing the demands of the community and stands against lennie in order to prevent theconflict of social norms and codes with lennie’s desires. moreover, keeping the balance betweenthese two forces in order to maintain sanity and avoid eventual self-destruction is one of the mostimportant reasons leading to lennie’s unfortunate death. balance must be held, otherwise theformed gap will eventuate the unmitigated dominance of one and the inevitable destruction of theother. the existence of each is the prerequisite for that of the other; lennie, or the pleasureprinciple, is the driving force of their relationship, without whom george merely acts as amachine following the rules. this paper points out and discusses the textual proof of steinbeck’sunwitting depiction of cathexis and anti-cathexis as lennie and george in his of mice and men.