Mad Desire and Feverish Melancholy:* Reflections on the Psychodynamics of Writing and Presenting

This paper builds on investigations, outlined in previous papers, into essay anxiety amongst late adolescent ‘A’ level students (Barwick 1995, 2000), where the author suggested that a student's experience of uncontained aggression - in particular, sexualized aggression - appears to be a strong contributory factor in essay writing anxiety. In this paper, examples of essay anxiety are broadened to include students at primary, secondary, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Further, drawing upon contemporary post-Kleinian thinking regarding the oedipal situation, the author suggests that many of the problems students encounter in their efforts to write may be prompted by unresolved oedipal issues. Conflicts arising from such issues may produce writing blocks or other neurotic essay symptoms. The author includes for consideration his own anxiety in preparing to present a paper at a conference. Some attention is also given to ways of alleviating essay anxiety, with particular reference to the use of transitional space.