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Psychoanalysis is the study of inner conflict (E. Kris, 1950). One hallmark of conflict is irrational self-defeating behavior. As such, conflict is readily identifiable in both clinical and literary contexts. Frequently, the more severe the internal conflict, the more contradictory, confusing, and oscillating are the feelings, thoughts, and behavior. Wurmser (2000) writes about the fracturing of self-experience that occurs as a universal phenomenon but is more pronounced in severe neurosis. He identifies severe clashes of the internal world seen in literary and cultural phenomena, but more importantly in clinical settings, as related to, initiated by, and mirrored in superego conflicts. Of course, personal, familial, and cultural traumas both cause and exaggerate this rupturing and its accompanying superego pathology. Many Shakespearean characters exhibit such severe conflicts.
Desdemona, for example, has a severely ruptured personality. This paper posits that one major fault line that her personality splinters along is the opposing trends of submission and aggression. She has other conflicts, but we believe that submission and aggression are the most salient for understanding her personality as they affect the action of the play. However, many other interpretations of her character are of course possible.