Configuration of trauma and memory bond in Auster’s invention of solitude

Those who have read several of Auster’s works will agree that the author, perhapsmore so than many of his colleagues, recycles many of his themes, motifs, characteristics andeven characters. Auster in invention of solitude not only catalogued his own experiences, butalso provided one of the earliest examples of the psychological processes involved in traumaand memory storage. It demonstrates the self’s psychological use of the Ego, in a classicalsense, to negotiate between emotional response and reality, in order to create meaning arounda set of events. More specifically, the death of Auster’s father operates as a catalyst for theauthor’s journey of self-discovery, which is richly tied to the psychoanalytical principles ofFreud and Lacan. in spite of the deep feeling of seclusion which emanates from Auster’sbook, The Invention of Solitude is not only the story of an absence, or of a lack of ties.Conversely, Auster manages to question the very nature of relationship and its bonds byshowing that far from expected, the traumatic experience underwent by Samuel Auster doesnot annihilate ties between him and his son, but establishes a perennial relationship betweenthem.

Keywords:

trauma , self , identity , absence , psychological cycle