THE RETURN OF THE REPRESSED: A FREUDIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC EXPLORATION OF ATIQ RAHIMI’S THE PATIENCE STONE

Abstract

This paper provides a detailed psychoanalytic comprehension of Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone, chiefly through Freudian psychoanalytic concepts of repression and the return of the repressed. Rahimi’s novella, set in an unidentified conflict-ridden region of Afghanistan, illustrates a profound exploration of the psychic life of an unnamed Afghan woman and her experiences. Her confessions to her comatose husband, parapraxes, nostalgia, memories, dreams, and libidinal behavior become conduits for the expression of repressed psychological trauma, thoughts, and impulses. This study analyzes the unnamed protagonist of Rahimi’s novella by utilizing repression as the cornerstone of all psychic processes as theorized by Sigmund Freud. It explicates how latent meanings are embedded in the protagonist’s speech and behavior by focusing on the resurfacing of the unconscious to the conscious.