The Gospel According to Fairbairn

Abstract

This essay approaches the life of Jesus to interpret it using Fairbairn’s theory of endopsychic personality structure. It shows as the emphasis in a Freudian interpretation is different from a Lacanian one, a Fairbairnian one has its unique qualities and aims focusing on the universality of psychic splitting. Through this lens Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Judas Iscariot represent aspects of the ego: Jesus is the central ego and the other two are partial egos representing the libidinal ego and the internal saboteur, respectively. Whereas God the Father, the Virgin Mary, and the Jewish authorities of the time represent aspects of the object with God the Father as the ideal object and the two part-objects as the exciting object and the rejecting object, respectively. Fairbairn’s theory directs attention to one level of repression applied to Judas/authorities dyad (rejecting object / internal saboteur) while its counterpart Mary/Mary (exciting object / libidinal ego) undergoes direct primary repression as well as indirect secondary repression. The discussion highlights the double repression of the feminine side, as opposed to the one-layer repression of the masculine side, predilection for ignoring inherent psychic bisexuality, and a psychoanalytic explanation for the soothing effect some find in reading the gospels.