Spirituality and Psyche: A Freudian Reading of Naeem Amin Bhatti's Chasing the Lord

Abstract

This research paper examines a psychoanalytic explanation of Naeem Amin Bhatti novel Chasing the Lord in the light of structural model of psyche given by Sigmund Freud. The paper states that the religious experience of the main character Andrew is not simply a question of religious belief, but a complex mechanism of psychological defense, namely sublimation, in reaction to deep socio-economic traumas. This study explores the role of qualitative textual analysis based on Freudian theories of the Id, Ego, and Superego in understanding how Andrew overcame his suicidal despair to become a spiritual seeker as part of the attempts by his Ego to balance between his aggressively primal drives and his oppressively internalized conscience. The results show that in the novel, spirituality is seen to be a survival mechanism of the psyche that focuses frustrated secular desires into a significant though strenuous spiritual quest. This work is an original contribution to Pakistani English literature as it is the first comprehensive psychoanalytic reading of the work of Bhatti to fill the gap between the spiritual and the psychological. The study draws a conclusion that Chasing the Lord is a strong literary portrayal of the capacity of the human psyche to spiritual searching as an engine to attain psychic coherence and sense in the wake of crippling personal disaster.