Citation

Schwartz MM. Psychoanal. Rev. 1973; 59(4): 617-625.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1973, Guilford Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

4653240

Abstract

My subject is a very short story by William Carlos Williams called “The Use of Force,” about a doctor who forces a spoon into a little girl's mouth to reveal diphtherial membranes that she has been hiding for three days. But, as so much else in Williams’ art, it also represents the dynamics of violence, the convergence of motive and situation which transforms the apparently ordinary into the revelation and partial recognition of sadistic desire enclosed by it. In this condensed expression of a critical incident in the life of a doctor we see the precarious closeness of therapeutic and destructive motives. I want to subject the story to a detailed psychoanalytic reading, to identify its core fantasies, to explore the relationship between manifest and unconsciously acted roles, and to suggest some explanations of its violence.

Language: en