Analysis # 3: Freudian interpretation of the song "I won't grow up"

In the introduction to psychology, Julie Rivkin and Michael discuss several of Freud’s theories in their essay entitled. Strangers to Ourselves: Psychoanalysis. Freud was very much intrigued by the process by which a child became a functioning member of society. He also studied the relationships between fathers and mothers towards their children (especially boys) and how their relationship influenced a child’s' gender identity. In the Peter Pan musical, Peter proudly boasts that he will never grow. One can use Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex as a foundation for analyzing Peter's desire to remain a boy forever.

Peter says, "Anyone who wants to try and make me a man, catch me if you can!"
According to Rivkin, "Anxiety about entry into an adult world perceived as threatening of a too fragile sense of self or anxiety that awakens either troubling memories or drives energies will propel some people to fixate at an early state of development." It is clear from the song that Peter pan is fixated in an early stage of his childhood development. He has a very fragile sense of self, and if frightened by the adult world that must forever run away from.

Peter is also driven by his id and wants instant gratification all of the time. His id remains unchecked by his ego and superego, so all he cares about his pleasure and having fun. Peter cannot participate the normal social world, which demands that we repress sexual and aggressive emotions. "Repression is essential to civilization, the converse of animal instinct into civil behavior" (Rivkin 389). As a person dominated by his id, Peter Pan finds going to school, obeying rules/norms, wearing a tie, being serious, and maintaining job daunting tasks.

If everyone in the world were like Peter Pan there would be no civilization because everyone would run away from his or her responsibilities. Freud would also say that Peter has not given up his pre-Oedipal desires. "All male children, Freud argued, experience an early attachment to their mother that is sexual in nature. Only the father's intervention, separates the mother from child, prevents incest" (Rivkin 391). Peter's fear of becoming a man may have to do with "castration anxiety" which Freud believed would lead to homosexuality if not overcome. Peter does identify with his father, an important stage in a boy's life.

"A little boy will exhibit a special interest in his father...we will simply say that he takes his father as ideal" (Freud 438). If Peter Pan were to grow up he would most likely have anxieties about sex or be asexual. His abilities to form relationships would be very limited, and would have neurotic tendencies to fly and play with little boys.

Works cited

Rivkin, Julie. "Strangers to Ourselves" & Freud, Sigmund. "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego". Rivkin, Julie. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Blackwell publishing; United Kingdom, 2004.

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