Smith, Adrian; (2025) The Claustrum and the Ring: Mapping Middle-earth’s Psychic Topography. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis is a study of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Utilising the formulations of Donald Meltzer, Melanie Klein, and other Kleinian theorists, the tale is treated as a Bildungsroman, in which the protagonist, Frodo, gradually emerges from a psychotic narcissistic organisation. Commentary on the tale tracks Frodo’s journey towards object relatedness from his initial position as an inhabitant of the claustrum – the inside of the internal mother, which, in his case, is characterised by geographic confusions. As he begins to emerge, the aggressive aspect of his narcissism becomes more manifest in response to his unbearable vulnerabilities, and the rectal dimension of his defensive retreat becomes more evident; in turn, the claustrophobic anxieties generated are then escaped from by recourse to psychosis. Frodo repeats this basic pattern throughout the tale, but it is mitigated by his engagement with the Oedipus situation, which gradually enables reparation through the father and a more differentiated relationship with the mother. On internalising the good breast, Frodo experiences the birth of a separate self, more delineated splitting (expressed in his pairing with Sam) and then undergoes disturbing growth towards integration in the context of oscillating Ps↔D. He undertakes the final leg of his quest with Sam into the dark kingdom of Mordor with the creature, Gollum – the personification of his damaged infantile identity – and ultimately the titular Ring is destroyed. The Ring is the tale’s central symbol of destructive holism and associates with the activity of anal masturbation, which Meltzer argues accompanies phantasies of violent intrusion into, and control over, the maternal internal object.

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