“The Irony of being Fatherly towards my patients, even motherly”
Dr. Grene writes, “I have a really stupid habit of feeling fatherly towards my patients, even motherly. After all these years, which I know for a fact deaden the impulses and instincts of other souls working in this sector, I am jealous for the safety, the happiness, if slightly despairing of the progress, of my patients. But I am suspicious. I wonder if, having failed with my own wife, I am inclined to regard this whole place as a sort of site of marriage, where I can be sinless, unaccused, even, on a daily basis (wretched need), redeemed.” Dr. Grene’s confession depicts an irony which infers that his impulses are not nonexistent which is common among other doctors. Under Lacanian psychoanalysis, his career is an utter Objet Petit a for a household. He bestows fatherly and motherly affection to his patients to gratify his unconscious yearning for a family. Patients are his family now that his marriage is not gratifying. Perhaps, if he had a rewarding matrimonial, he would invest his love in it instead of the patients and his profession.
The Irony of Dr. Grene’s Irish Identity
Dr. Grene elucidates, “We shall see, said the rat, as he shook his wooden leg.” A saying of Bet’s. What does it mean? I don’t know. Perhaps it is a phrase from a famous childhood story, yet another famous childhood Irish thing I don’t know of, having spent my childhood in England. It is very stupefying to be Irish and have none of the traits or the memories or even a recognisable bloody accent. No one on this earth has ever confused me for an Irishman, and yet that is what I am, as far as I know.”
Residing in England weakens Dr. Grene’s Irish identity\; hence, it would be tough for him to depict the archetypal Irishness when he is not accustomed to it. Furthermore, physical traits are not satisfactory to conclude whether one is Irish or not.
The Irony of Dr. Grene’s Love
Dr. Grene writes, “There is no doubt in my mind I do love her. Why is my so-called love then no good to her, why does it in fact imperil her? Oh, on reading over my previous entry here, where I seemed to be subtly or not so subtly flattering myself in the matter of compassion, and love – my stomach nearly turned over as I read it – I was so annoyed with myself that I went into the kitchen when I heard her making that awful stuff she drinks at night before she goes to sleep.” Love would have gratified Bet instead of imperiling her. The ironic imperil validates that perchance the love which Dr. Grene bestows his wife does not meet her expectancy or does not enchant her unconscious craving. Perhaps, Dr. Grene and Bet hold dissimilar discernments vis-à-vis supreme love.
