The Identity Construction and Split Self of Eliza in Pygmalion: a Psychoanalytic Perspective
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This paper tries to explore the identity construction and the split selfhood of Eliza in Pygmalion from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic perspectives. George Bernard Shaw has often been labeled “unpsychological” by critics. However, the notion has been reexamined. Some critics have de-emphasized the traditional psychological emphasis on childhood and sex to focus instead on Freud’s preoccupation with language. And Lacan is most famous for his post-structural rereading of Freud. There are two observations that are relevant to Eliza’s identity: the purpose of analysis is to bring the unconscious to consciousness—or, in postmodern terminology, making the new self real through the transference process. Higgins’s “analysis” consists of bringing the underdeveloped and hidden “other” Eliza to light, so that she can make her way in the world. In this sense, he just brings Eliza’s unconscious new self into consciousness. The second useful observation is that analysis begins with a repetition. Higgins, acting as a Lacanian mirror for Eliza, reveals the new identity concealed beneath her ragged dress and dirty face, which is a repetition of the identity construction process of her mirror experience as a small child when she first developed the awareness that she was a separate human being. However, Eliza’s talking cure is, perhaps, less than a complete success, for it is clear that she experiences emptiness and loss even after completing the “treatment”. Eliza never completely resolves her inner and outer conflicts. Equally problematic for her is the deepening of the inner split that we all first experience in the mirror stage described by Lacan: the realization that we can never close the gap between essence and expression and, even worse, that we deepen the split as we become more articulate. Therefore, the identity problem discussed by Shaw has got postmodern characteristics. Key words: psychoanalysis, identity construction, split self Resume: Le present document tente d'etudier la construction de l'identite et l’autodivision d'Eliza dans Pygmalion d’apres la perspective psychanalytique freudienne et lacanienne. George Bernard Shaw a souvent ete marques im-psychological par les critiques. Toutefois, la notion a ete reexamine. Certains critiques n’ont plus souligne l’importance psychologique traditionnelle sur l'enfance et le sexe au lieu de se concentrer sur la preoccupation de Freud avec la langue. Et Lacan est le plus celebre pour sa relecture post-structurelle de Freud. Il y a deux observations qui sont pertinentes sur l'identite d’Eliza: le but de l'analyse est de mettre l'inconscience a la conscience-ou, dans la terminologie postmoderne, ce qui rend le nouveau soi reel a travers le processus de transfert. L’analyse de Higgins consiste a apporter l’«autres» d'Eliza sous-developpee et cachee a la lumiere, afin qu'elle puisse faire son chemin dans le monde. En ce sens, il apporte juste la nouvelle soi inconsciente d’Eliza en conscience. La deuxieme observation utile est que l'analyse commence par une repetition. Higgins, agissant comme un miroir lacanien pour Eliza, revele la nouvelle identite dissimulee sous sa robe en lambeaux et son visage sale, qui est une repetition du processus de construction de l'identite de son miroir experience en tant qu'une petite enfant quand elle a developpe la premiere fois la conscience qu'elle etait une etre humain distincte. Cependant, la cure de parler pour Eliza est, peut-etre, moins d'un succes complet, car il est clair que son experience est vacante, meme apres l'achevement du «traitement». Eliza resout jamais completement son interieur et exterieur conflits. De meme problematique pour elle est l'approfondissement de la division interieure que nous avons tous la premiere experience dans l’etape de miroir decrite par Lacan: la realisation que nous ne pourrons jamais combler le fosse entre l’essence et l'expression et, pire encore, que nous approfondissons la division comme nous devenons plus articules. Par consequent, le probleme d'identite discute par Shaw a des caracteristiques postmoderne. Mots-Cles: psychanalyse, construction de l'identite, autodivision
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".