Analyzing Kafka's 'A Country Doctor' Through a Psychoanalytic Lens

This essay provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of Franz Kafka's 'A Country Doctor', exploring the story through the lens of Freudian theory. It examines the narrative as a dream, highlighting elements such as the changing verb tenses, the sudden appearance of characters, and the blurring of reality and fantasy. The essay connects the characters and events to Freudian concepts, including the id, ego, and superego, and explores the symbolism of the setting, particularly the forest representing the unconscious. The analysis focuses on the conflicts within the characters, especially the doctor, and how these interactions reflect inner psychological struggles. It also addresses themes such as parent-child conflicts, the psychological savagery, and absurdity of life, drawing on Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams' to analyze the characters' behaviors and motivations. The essay concludes by emphasizing the story's psychological depth and its relevance to understanding the human mind.

Running Head: ENGLISH ESSAY
English Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH ESSAY
Title- Interpretation of Kafka’ “A country doctor” as Psychoanalytic study:
Sometimes, dreams appear so much real that it becomes difficult to distinguish it easily
from the reality. People feel quite disappointed having woke up from one such fascinating dream
to know that the dream has ended. There are some of the literary works where the line between
reality and fancy has been blurred providing scope to ponder on those in a psychological manner.
The current essay will deal with Kafka’ A Country Doctor through applying the psychological
approach. It will also provide certain incidents of the story as per the ‘The interpretation of
Dreams’ of Freud. The three parts of Freudian psychic apparatus such as id, ego and superego
will be discussed connecting it with the characters of the story.
Franz Kafka has been considered as one of the most influential writer in the 20th century
known for the significant style he had named as Kafkaesque. The stories of Kafka are usually
extremely bizarre that dig into the psychological condition of the characters along with the
characterization of different spheres of human psyche. A Country Doctor is where the doctor
himself is the narrator who tells the story of his own journey of his visit to one patient in a snowy
night. It is narrated in the form of a dream through changing the verb tenses, a sudden
appearance of the characters, the timeless and rapid transition, the stripping of the clothes of the
doctor and others.
The story is set in a specific forest that is connected with the unconsciousness having
represented a surreal image of a particular place where the passing time is not that tangible and
natural. The doctor is shown as one responsible, rational and moral character who is supposed to
interact with other characters acting brutally, irrationally and ineptly. The character of the doctor
also symbolizes logic in the world of chaos and from the psychological aspect, the interactions
are actually conflicts of the inner self. Kafka has consistently been an expert in the works of

2ENGLISH ESSAY
Freud and he could do justice with the themes like parent-child conflicts, the psychological
savagery and absurdity of life.
In the beginning of the story, the doctor is found to be standing outside of the house in
the snowy night thinking regarding the way he could visit a patient. It is depicted from the
beginning that the doctor cares regarding the patient and stands anxiously outside of the house in
such a chilly night. When Rose, doctor’ maid returns without being able to borrow a horse for his
trip, a groom appears suddenly with two horses and forces the doctor to begin the trip: "But I'll
drive you, you don't know the way" says the doctor, "I'm not coming with you anyway, I'm
staying with Rose" answered the groom (Kafka, 135). The desire of the doctor to take the groom
on the ride might represent his dependency on someone or his lack of sexual capacity.
The doctor is then shown to be striped by the people of the village where he stands
quietly and looks at them. The people of the village take him to the patient and as per the views
of Freud, staying unclothed in front of the stranger making the dreamer feel embarrassed has
some deep connotations . It is connected to the dreamer’ earliest childhood memories where
people are naked in front of the neighbors, relatives and even strangers. Freud further has added
that having dreams of nakedness can also be analyzed as linked to the erotic themes where
repression finds expression.
While visiting the patient, it is found by the doctor that there are no such symptoms but
the patient is saying “ Doctor let me die” (Kafka, 138). The doctor check the patient’ body twice
and points an big wound “ as big as palm of doctor’ hand which is full of worms. The boy is
then seen as whispering while sobbing, “Will you save me?” This is the point from where the
conflict between the villagers and the doctor “Well, as it please them; I have not thrust my
services on them; if they misuse me for sacred ends, I let that happen to me too; what better do I

3ENGLISH ESSAY
want, old country doctor that I am, bereft of my servant girl!”(Kafka, 254) Then the villagers
come and strip the doctor’ clothes off when the school choir starts singing “Strip his clothes off,
then he'll heal us heal us, If he doesn't, kill him dead! Only a doctor, only a doctor “(Kafka, 254).
Next, the villagers took him to the side of the wound of the patient who insulted the
doctor saying he would like to scratch the eyes of him. The villagers did not at all admire his
services of helping people but tortured him. They forced him to make the impossible possible
treating him the worse. The society shouts on him “No, it’s not enough”, “if he doesn’t , kill him
dead” (Kafka. 64).
On a concluding note, it can be said that A Country Doctor is one such psychological
story which is founded on the theories of Freud. The story is narrated in a way of a dream and
induces a feeling of agitation and anxiety among the readers. In A Country Doctor, there
characters are found as having various parts of the Freudian psychic apparatus. The setting of the
story is forest which is connected with the unconsciousness. The doctor is represented as one
moral, honorable, responsible and rational character portraying Ego. The groom is one
representation of Id seeking for the gratification of libido. He doctor is seen as powerless who is
unable to dissuade him. The struggle is actually between conscious and the unconscious self or
between Id and Ego. Human mind is convinced that all decisions are made consciously but the
fact is that the unconscious mind leaves deep impact on decisions taken.

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Reference.
Kafka, Franz. "A country doctor." Doctors and Patients-An Anthology. CRC Press, 2018.