Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner

Introduction: “The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make the unconscious conscious.”(McLeod). Sigmund Freud was the brains behind this theory. He believed that this theory would help behavioral disorders in his patients and with other people who needed the help. His theory consists of three areas of our mind, which is how we deal with our conscience. These three areas should be balanced out throughout a person's life to be considered “healthy”. The three areas in our minds are The Id, The Ego, and the Super Ego. In Khaled Hosseini's novel , The Kite Runner, the main character Amir, easily reflects one of these three areas. Amir was in the mind area of The Id, he goes through situations
There are many mechanisms that people can use to try to prevent these memories from returning. One of those mechanisms is repression. Saul McLeod describes repression as “ unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious. Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego”(McLeod). This mechanism is simply blocking the unwanted from the conscious mind and acting as though it never happened. In The Kite Runner, Amir is using this mechanism to relieve himself of the guilt of not helping his friend Hassan when he was in need. “I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be”(Hosseini 77). After the rape event happened, Amir was not able to deal with his emotions or with the truth. He used the repression mechanism and tried to hide these thoughts in his unconscious mind so he would not feel the guilt. Amir was constantly struggling to keep those memories hidden. Although people try to use repression to keep memories in the unconscious it only affects them worse in the long run. With time these memories will only become an anxiety that a person may not be able to