Tolkien's depiction of Frodo's mental suffering may derive from his own wartime experience. His friend C. S. Lewis was interested in Jungian psychology and the collective unconscious and probably shared these ideas with Tolkien; Tolkien used the concepts in several places. Middle-earth is known to fans both through Tolkien's writings and through other media, notably Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film series. In a celebrated scene, Jackson's 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers depicts Gollum/Sméagol talking to himself, using the device of shot/reverse shot to switch between the two personalities.
Tolkien fans have discussed Gollum's diagnosis on over 1300 websites. A supervised study by medical students, in a paper that uses both Tolkien's and Jackson's depictions of the character, concluded that Gollum does not meet the criteria for schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder, but that he meets 7 of 9 criteria for schizoid personality disorder.
The scholar of English Steve Walker states that Tolkien has rooted every element of Middle-earth naturally, using descriptions of Earthlike weather, landforms, peoples, cultures, flora, and fauna.[2] He comments that
The psychological authentication of Tolkien's fiction approaches Freudian levels of subtlety. That psychiatric insight can get almost clinical, as with the representation of Denethor's aberrant behavior in terms of paranoia, the motivation of Théoden's passivity as bipolar depression, and the causally rich implications of the parallels between Beorn's werebear transformations and symptoms of epileptic seizure.[3]
The psychiatrists Landon van Dell and colleagues write that The Lord of the Rings offers useful and "very tangible" lessons for mental health by helping readers to envisage and empathise with the situations of other people.[11]
Tolkien's depiction of Frodo's mental suffering may owe something to his own wartime experience.[13] The Tolkien scholar Karyn Milos comments that "recurring pain and intrusive memory, often triggered by significant dates or other reminders of the traumatic event, is a central characteristic of post-traumatic stress."[6]Janet Brennan Croft adds that "Frodo's experience of the war" resembles "modern war in its unrelieved stress". As in the static trenches of the First World War, in which Tolkien had fought, Frodo had to stay in cover on his quest to Mordor, constantly threatened by a watchful enemy he could not see.[13]
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term analytical psychology for his approach to the psyche.[14][15] His theory included archetypes, the collective unconscious, individuation, the Self, and the shadow.[16] Tolkien and his friend C. S. Lewis were members of The Inklings literary club. Lewis was interested in Jungian psychology and "enchanted" by the idea of the collective unconscious; he probably shared these ideas with Tolkien.[17] The scholar Verlyn Flieger states that Tolkien's incomplete novel The Lost Road was based on the collective unconscious.[17][18] Flieger comments that in The Lost Road, Tolkien uses the "recognised psychological phenomenon" of sudden flashbacks "as a psychic gateway into locked-off areas of the soul".[19] The clinical psychologist Nancy Bunting writes that Tolkien expressed a Jungian view in several places, such as in a letter to Christopher Tolkien which, in her words, "sounds the Jungian refrain of linking native soil, race, and language".[17] Dorothy Matthews and others have identified numerous Jungian archetypes, such as the "Wise Old Man", in The Lord of the Rings.[20]
The madness and despair of Denethor, Steward of Gondor, have been compared to that of Shakespeare'sKing Lear. Both men are first outraged when their children (Faramir and Cordelia, respectively) refuse to aid them, but then grieve upon their children's death – or apparent death, in the case of Faramir. Both Denethor and Lear have been described as despairing of God's mercy, something extremely dangerous in a leader who has to defend a realm.[21] The Tolkien scholar Michael Drout writes that while Tolkien's professed dislike of Shakespeare is well-known, his use of King Lear for "issues of kingship, madness, and succession" was hardly surprising.[22]
Gollum was talking to himself. Sméagol was holding a debate with some other thought that used the same voice but made it squeak and hiss. A pale light and a green light alternated in his eyes as he spoke...
'But Sméagol said he would be very very good. Nice hobbit! He took cruel rope off Sméagol's leg. He speaks nicely to me.'
'Very very good, eh, my precious? Let's be good, good as fish, sweet one, but to ourselfs. Not hurt the nice hobbit, of course, no, no.'
'But the Precious holds the promise,' the voice of Sméagol objected.
'Then take it,' said the other, 'and let's hold it ourselfs! Then we shall be master, gollum! Make the other hobbit, the nasty suspicious hobbit, make him crawl, yes, gollum!'[T 1]
In Tolkien's book, the monster Gollum talks to himself in two different personalities, the good Sméagol and the evil Gollum.[4]Peter Jackson's 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, part of his major film series on Middle-earth, similarly depicts Gollum/Sméagol talking to himself in "perhaps the most celebrated scene in the entire film".[23] The scene uses the device of shot/reverse shot to switch between the two personalities, who are represented as two different CGI characters. The scholar of film Kristin Thompson writes that Jackson and Fran Walsh, who directed the scene, suggest the mental conflict using a "subtle combination of framing, camera movement, editing, and character glances."[23] Thompson comments that the scene's ability to make the viewer "apparently see two characters arguing with each other when only one is actually present creates an eerie, even astonishing moment that transcends the presentation in the book".[23]
Tolkien fans have extensively discussed what mental illness this dual personality might represent.[4][24] A 2004 paper in the British Medical Journal by supervised medical students at University College London (UCL) noted that the diagnosis for Gollum's mental illness is analysed on more than 1300 websites.[4] Nomenclature has varied over the years, and fans have applied labels more or less loosely; a common description is dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder.[25]
Schizophrenia
The UCL authors considered a diagnosis of schizophrenia for Gollum, based on Tolkien's and Jackson's depictions.[4] The disorder is characterised by hearing voices, delusions, disorganised thinking and behaviour,[26] and flat or inappropriate affect.[27] They found that this diagnosis superficially looks reasonable; 25 of 30 students surveyed thought it likely. However, they noted that Gollum does not have "false, unshakeable beliefs"; that the power of the One Ring is real in Middle-earth; and that other ring-bearers have the same symptoms. Accordingly, they found that the criteria for schizophrenia were not met.[4]
Multiple personality disorder
The UCL authors then examined a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder in Gollum's case. They noted that this looked possible; it was the second most common diagnosis in their student survey (3 of 30 thought it likely). However, they stated that in multiple personality disorder, "one personality is suppressed by the other and the two personalities are always unaware of each other's existence". Because this is not true in Gollum's case, as the Gollum personality actually converses with Sméagol, and the two are aware of each other, the authors excluded this diagnosis.[4]
Schizoid personality disorder
The UCL team concluded, despite the plausibility of the other diagnoses, that on the basis of the available evidence Gollum meets seven of the nine diagnostic criteria for schizoid personality disorder, making this the most probable diagnosis. They stated that Gollum displays several symptoms of the disorder: "pervasive maladaptive behaviour" since childhood "with a persistent disease course"; he has "odd interests" and indulges in "spiteful behaviour" which makes friendships difficult and causes "distress to others".[4] The personality disorder is characterised by asociality,[28] solitariness, secretiveness, emotional coldness, detachment, and apathy. Affected individuals may find it hard to form intimate attachments, but have a rich internal fantasy world.[29][30]
In early March ... Frodo had been ill. On the thirteenth of that month Farmer Cotton found Frodo lying on his bed; he was clutching a white gem that hung on a chain about his neck and he seemed half in a dream. 'It is gone for ever', he said, 'and now all is dark and empty'. But the fit passed, and when Sam got back on the twenty-fifth, Frodo had recovered, and he said nothing about himself.
The Lord of the Rings, book 6, ch. 9 "The Grey Havens"[T 2]
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Milos and medical scholars like Bruce D. Leonard have suggested that the ring-bearer Frodo, returning "irreparably wounded" from his quest, could be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They note that Frodo repeatedly relives the most traumatic experiences "mentally, emotionally, and physically", especially on anniversaries of the quest's events.[6][31]
Dissociative amnesia
Leonard quotes Tolkien's description of Frodo's behaviour after the quest: "By the end of the next day the pain and unease had passed, and Frodo was merry again, as merry as if he did not remember the blackness of the day before".[T 3][31] Leonard comments that this sounds like dissociative amnesia, common alongside flashbacks of traumatic events. He writes that Tolkien's doubting phrase "as if" and the amnesia both suggest that Frodo was in a dissociative state on the day that he relived the Witch-king's attack on Weathertop, not wishing to remember it.[31]
Paranoia
Frodo sees the Eye watching him
But far more he was troubled by the Eye: so he called it to himself... The Eye: that horrible growing sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh, and to see you: to pin you under its deadly gaze, naked, immovable. So thin, so frail and thin, the veils were become that still warded it off. Frodo knew just where the present habitation and heart of that will now was: as certainly as a man can tell the direction of the sun with his eyes shut. He was facing it, and its potency beat upon his brow.
The Lord of the Rings, book 4, ch. 2 "The Passage of the Marshes"[T 4]
Walker suggests that Denethor's increasingly "aberrant behavior" can be explained as despair and paranoia.[2] Edward Lense, in Mythlore, describes Frodo's continuing experience of seeing the Eye of Sauron wherever he goes as "read[ing] like the record of a paranoiac's delusions".[5]
References
Primary
^Tolkien 1955, book 4, ch. 2 "The Passage of the Marshes"
^Durham, April (2018). "Review: The Body in Tolkien's Legendarium: Essays on Middle-earth Corporeality by Christopher Vaccaro". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 29 (3 (103)): 453–457. JSTOR26728152.
^Nash, J. D. (May 2012). "1. The Malice of Saruman". The impact of evil on the psychological and physical landscapes of Middle earth. Tennessee Technological University (Master's Thesis). pp. 4–33. results in a paralyzing depression that allows Wormtongue ...
^Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 (5th ed.). Arlington, Virginia: American Psychiatric Association. 2013. pp. 99–105. ISBN978-0-89042-555-8.
