HOW TO LIVE LIFE ALL THE WAY UP LEARNING LIFE SKILLS FROM LITERARY CHARACTERS

In this essay, using the theories of psychiatrist, Eric Berne and his script theory; psychoanalyst, Carl Jung and his archetypes and mandalas; as well as the Native American Medicine Wheel; and the Hindu notion of the kundalini, I analyze the psychological development of Adele Quested of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India (1924) and Anna Wulf of Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook (1962). Adela Quested goes to India seeking the real India and while engaging the archetype of the Lover discovers her real Self. While in India she metaphorically walks the Medicine Wheel and discovers that to be whole she must balance her ability to think with her ability to feel. Anna Wulf’s psychological development requires her to walk the Medicine Wheel and discover that her idealistic thinking must be balanced by realistic thinking and her femininity with her masculinity. This is an arduous task for Anna and requires the help of the Destroyer archetype. By the end of the novels both women have rewritten their scripts and become individuated and whole