Odalis Espinoza

FIQWS: Literature & Psychoanalysis

4 December 2018

Freud Saves Katagiri

Literature and psychoanalysis have advanced tremendously from their starting points. Writer, Haruki Murakami and “father of psychology”, Sigmund Freud, have both left their mark in the study of psychoanalysis and how society perceives it. Traumatic experiences impact and affect the sanity of individuals and their psychical personalities, like what occurred to the protagonist of Murakami’s short story, “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”. The isolation and disconnect from society coming from the protagonist is a direct consequence of the constant battle of identity within him. Katagiri’s development of Super-Frog and Worm are attempts to cope with a disconnect from society and to boost his self-confidence, ultimately saving Katagiri instead of Tokyo.

            The components of the psychical personality known as the id, ego, and super ego are developed within individuals to create and maintain personalities, as well as aid in appropriate decision making within the norms of society. The antagonist in Murakami’s short story is only spoken about and never interacts with the protagonist, much like the id is in the unconscious mind. The antagonist, Worm, is described by Super-Frog as a mysterious character, one that few have ever seen. Worm’s ideas are hidden and unknown, much like he is, “in the warmth and darkness underground” (Murakami). When first encountering Katagiri in his apartment, Super-Frog mentions Worm’s anger being awaken by the recent earthquake that occurred in Tokyo. The Kobe earthquake woke up Katagiri’s id from idleness, leading to the threat of provoking another earthquake, a self-destruction of Katagiri’s mental health. With the extensive amount of repression placed on Katagiri’s id, Worm was to release these emotions causing destruction. Super-Frog describes Worm as filled with hatred absorbed and stored inside him, and describes his body and heart as swollen with immense hatred (Murakami). Freud goes further in supporting the analysis of Worm representing Katagiri’s id when he said, “Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge – that, in our view, is all there is in the id” (Freud 78). These instinctual emotions of hatred are caused by the underappreciation Katagiri feels and are hidden inside his id to the point where he isn’t even aware of their existence. Not only is he filled with hatred due to the lack of gratification he receives from society, but because he isn’t emotionally and sexually fulfilling his id’s desires. The id is the most basic system within Katagiri’s psyche, containing “the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives” (Schacter 503). Murakami includes Katagiri’s lack of sexual life as well as the lack of any sexual partner when Katagiri tells Frog “it’s been three months or more since I last slept with a woman – and I had to pay for it”(Murakami) and adds “I don’t have a single person who likes me, either at work or in my private life” (Murakami) to show the feelings Katagiri has towards himself: disappointment and embarrassment. The buildup of Katagiri’s sexual frustration is another cause as to why his id is so fueled by hatred and is ready to explode.

            The second but also important component of Katagiri’s psyche is his ego. Dealing with the reality principle/external world, the ego “functions such as logical thought, problem solving, creativity, attention and decision making” (Schacter 503). The ego is also described by Freud as having three masters to obey, making the negotiation of the super-ego, id, and external world slightly difficult. The lack of ego dominance in Katagiri’s mind leads directly to the overdominance of the third component of his psyche, the super-ego. Ideally, Katagiri should be dominated by his ego, in which the ego “has dethroned the pleasure principle which dominates the course of events in the id without any restriction and has replaced it by the reality principle, which promises more certainty and greater success” (Freud 75) but in Katagiri’s case he feels unsuccessful and disconnected because of the overdominance of his super-ego.

            Lastly and most dominantly is Katagiri’s super-ego. This super-ego posses Katagiri’s mind and actions and leads him to the isolated and dangerous life he lives in. Freud depicts the super-ego as parental influences which govern and provide love but also threatens and gives punishments that may lead to the loss of love (Freud 61. Katagiri’s fear of being punished causing the loss of the love he has leads him to live an emotionless and monotonous life. Katagiri represses the desires of the id and the balance of the ego by living solely in his super-ego mind set.

            After closely analyzing Katagiri’s position and role in society, it is clear as to why the trauma of the earthquake so greatly affected him. Freud speaks of the need of an outlet, to release any repressed emotions or to simply talk out the sensations of a past trauma, but as the story of Katagiri progresses, the reader can notice his loneliness. Not only is he physically lonely, but he also feels unimportant to society. Murakami mentioned Katagiri being an assistant chief of the Tokyo Security Trust Bank, one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in his city. Katagiri’s feelings of unimportance and the disconnect with society is proven after he meets Super-Frog and thinks:

“They could stab him [Katagiri] if they wanted to. They could beat him up. He was perfect for the job: no wife, no kids, both parents dead, a brother and sister he had put through college married off. So what if they killed him? It wouldn’t change anything for anybody—least of all for Katagiri himself”. (Murakami)

Having to take care of his two siblings after the death of his parents and having them get married before him after he put them through college proved the amount of effort Katagiri put on their well-being instead of his own. The lack of company of friends, wife, children, or any family in general made Katagiri feel as if he was “fit” for his job, involving risks presented by “old-time gangsters, Korean mobsters, Chinese Mafia, guns and drugs” (Murakami) and his acceptance for being “surrounded more than once by mobsters threatening to kill him” (Murakami). Even at the job he felt most fit at, Katagiri remained feeling underappreciated and unpromoted, but he never complained (Murakami). These feelings of inferiority in society are due to the lack of help and aid Katagiri received after the earthquake. Katagiri survived the earthquake and disregarded the trauma, but it is obvious that the trauma still lives in his unconscious because of the amount of information he has stored in his mind relating to the earthquake. Since Super-Frog is a figment of Katagiri’s imagination, when Super-Frog said:

“Buildings will be transformed into piles of rubble, their inhabitants crushed to death. Fires everywhere, the road system in a state of collapse, ambulances and fire trucks useless, people just lying there, dying. One hundred and fifty thousand of them! Pure hell”, (Murakami)

one could notice the vivid images of the past earthquake living inside of Katagiri’s head. Not only has he tried to disregard his trauma completely, Katagiri doesn’t mention receiving any help from a psychiatrist to overcome this trauma. Humans utilize different coping strategies in the aftermath of an earthquake, such as “distraction at a community level involving organized activities such as eating and drinking together” (Wlodarczyk 329). This social interaction is not achieved by Katagiri so instead his mind projected the battle between his id, ego, and super-ego onto Super-Frog, Worm, and himself. Katagiri’s lack of relationships with other individuals in society is made obvious when the only person he speaks to is the attorney with the Big Bear case.

The creation of the character of Super-Frog and Worm are ways in which Katagiri’s mind is trying to cope with the trauma of the recent earthquake. With no outlet and no one to talk the trauma through, Katagiri’s trauma is repressed. The development of Super-Frog is an example of all that Katagiri wanted to be and all he had repressed. Katagiri desired for someone to need him with such urgency, to be as reassuring as Super-Frog was. In the contrary, Worm played out the id of Katagiri, longing passionately for interactions in the external world: sexual relationships and friendships, thus the consequence of not receiving these desires would lead the id to destroy Katagiri. Katagiri was living with the super-ego over dominating his whole psyche, leading to his isolation from society. His fear of coming out of his comfort zone, the fear of being hated, and the fear of being punished, pushed Katagiri to remain alone. This conflict between Katagiri’s psychical personalities led to his feelings of solitariness and unappreciation. At the end of the story, Super-Frog doesn’t prevent the earthquake from occurring to its entirety, instead he just gets it postponed. The triumph of Worm would have signified the triumph of the id, leading to the demise of Tokyo along with the demise of Katagiri’s mental state. Worm is desperately in search for an outlet, which is why Super-Frog feels the urgency to stop him from causing havoc and destruction since, “traumatic experiences are carried and remain internal to the person until there is an opportunity to bring this experience literally out into the world, through an interaction with another person” (Rosbrow 219) and Katagiri has no interaction with any other person. With the traumatic experience of an earthquake impacting his social health, it is completely understandable Katagiri should feel helplessness, personal insignificance, and powerlessness and ignoring the needs of his ego and id will cause great destruction to himself or those around him.

The extreme need of Super-Frog’s presence in Katagiri’s life was obvious since the overdominance of his super-ego was leading him to a miserable life. Once Super-frog defeated Worm and Katagiri’s feelings of importance and recognition shifted his ego into domination, which is why Super-frog also completely decayed since he was no longer needed. The need for these imaginative characters resulted in the mental stability of Katagiri and another opportunity in seeking help to bring an end to his trauma from the earthquake.