A Sychoanalysis of the outsider in Aramide Segun’s Enitan, daughter of destiny

Abstract

This study has as its aim the examination of Eniitan, the major and eponymous character in the primary literary text, as an outsider on the grounds of her albino skin, the stories of re-incarnation surrounding her birth and her seemingly inexplicable and unusual affiliation with nature and traditional medicine which is largely termed mysterious by and unacceptable to her society. The outsider is the one who is not considered a part of a social circle. This study employed some aspects of psychoanalysis such as Freud’s theory of the id and repressed materials, Lacan’s theory of the Imaginary Order and Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious. This study has, through the aspects of psychoanalysis that were applied, debunked the misconception about the outsider as a psychopathic character. This study explains Eniitan’s perceived ‘outsider-ness’ as a response to the hostility of her social environment rather than the traits of psychopathy. The paper also maintains that the identity of Eniitan as an outsider is a misconception as she is, in fact, an insider owing to her role as a guardian of a significant aspect of her culture- the knowledge and practice of traditional medicine.