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Applied psychoanalysis is an extensive field which has been approached in many different ways. My application, focusing on specific aspects of ego psychology is, I believe, unique.
My subject is freedom, personal freedom, inner (psychological) and outer (social and political) freedom, especially as conceptualized as ego autonomy.
The fictional character of Winston Smith is the object of this study. Winston Smith is the hero of the novel, 1984, created by George Orwell. At the beginning of the novel Winston Smith is seen as having limited ego autonomy. He achieves a greater degree of autonomy and then loses it almost entirely by becoming 're-fused' with a primitive parental imago in a process of brainwashing conceptualized as a reverse of separation-individuation. The hypothesized failure of superego and ego ideal formation in Winston Smith is seen as the psychological turning point.
The relationship between a person and their government is complicated and variable. Oceana, Winston Smith's country, is interested in total subjugation and control. The Inner Party (Oceana's governing group) undermines Winston's primary ego autonomy and fails to provide him with sufficient leadership or adequate identity models to promote secondary autonomy and greater psychological development. A vulnerability in Winston, a partially unsuccessful struggle with his drives, principally (but not exclusively) oral aggressive ones symbolized by rats is purposely exploited by Oceana.
'It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen' (Orwell, 1949, p. 5). After this first line of his novel, Orwell goes on to describe the conditions in 'Oceana' (England and the United States) under INGSOC (English Socialism) in which the hero, Winston Smith, lives. Posters proclaiming 'BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU' are everywhere. Winston resides alone in a barren room in a dilapidated building in a decaying city. It is 'Airstrip One' (London of the f