Bitch and Hate Poem

         The psychoanalytic approaches of the different parts of your mind are displayed in the poems Bitch and Hate Poem. These poems show that there are different pieces that make up your mind.  These pieces are the Id is the primal instinct, the Superego is the socially polite and conscious piece of your mind, and the Ego is the mediator between the two.  The poems Bitch and Hate Poem display these different parts and the battle between the Id, Superego, and Ego.

         In the poem Bitch by Carolyn Kizer, the Id, Ego, and Superego are clear in this poem because she is at war with herself, but expresses both sides during this poem. You can see how she has primal instincts when her guard is up and “As the bitch starts to bark hysterically” after she says something nice shows that the Id inside of her does not necessarily want to be friendly. The Id is her natural instincts of that when a dog does not understand why you are there, it starts to bark, and that is what she wanted to do. Her Ego is displayed when she says, “Where are your manners, I say, as I say” because consciously she knows that she has to be nice, and balance her feelings. “At a kind word from him, a look like the old days, / the bitch changes her tone; she begins to whimper. / She wants to snuggle up to him, to cringe” is the superego because she wants so badly to do this, but she can’t. The dog is a symbolic representation of the Id in this poem. She uses this dog because it is easier to accept a dog that runs off of their primal instinct, but not a human. Humans have the social responsibility to be respectable community members, while dogs can still be somewhat wild animals. 




         In Hate Poem by Julie Sheehan, almost the whole poem seems like an Id poem, because she doesn’t seem to be holding any of her feelings back. The first line of the poem reads, "I hate you truly. Truly I do."  This is not generally understood as a happy phrase, and sets the tone for the rest of the poem to be negative.  The negativity is balanced a little bit when the Ego piece of this poem comes out and she says “My pleasant ‘good morning’: Hate”. Even though she says, “hate” at the end of the line, she is still doing what is socially expected and being polite.  She is not acting like the dog in the poem Bitch, but she is trying to control herself.  The Id seems like it is the voice inside her head, and seems to be represented by the devil on her shoulder, while the Ego is the angel on the opposite side, forcing her to be nice. 


The message that Bitch sends is that the inner self battle can rage, but people still generally do what they are socially expected to do. Rather then saying she hates him, she said good morning. The message that Hate Poem sends is that there are different parts of yourself that need to be constantly put into check and that you need to be aware of. It shows there is an inner battle in everyone and that there are different parts of your personality that need to constantly be addressed.

         Both poems show the inner struggles people can have with the different parts of your mind. While we have continued to stress the importance of having good manners, and being polite, we as humans still have this basic desire to react on instinct alone.  Neither of these poems shows very productive relationships, and can expresses some of the inner struggles that happen when these relationships begin to fall apart. Without the other parts of the mind to keep us balanced, social society would fall apart.