Dr. Rashid psychological point of view of Dorian Gray

Mental illness is obviously a widely approached topic in Victorian studies, simply because there are so many texts that address it – Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

A. Case History

Dorian Gray is a good looking young man who inherits his uncle's fortune. After his uncle's death, he moves from a small village into the defunct estate. His life changes radically, from being poor to being rich, from being moral to being corrupt. His new friends are Basil Hallward (the artist who is impressed by Dorian's beauty and consider him suitable for being his new work of art) and Lord Henry Wotton (the man who is responsable for his decay). After becoming friend with Basil and Lord Henry, Dorian accepts to have his portrait painted, but then he realises that one day his beauty will fade and he wish to sell his soul to the devil, so he will remain always young and beautiful and his portrait to become old and ugly. Convinced by this trade, Dorian let him guided by Lord Henry into a hedonistic life.

B. Diagnoses

Dr. Rashid first noticed that Dorian has signs of dysmorphobia, narcissistic character traits, arrests in psychic maturation often seen in paraphilias, and he becomes homosexual.

Analysing his wish- that his portrait, rather than he, will grow old- we can deduct that Dorain is unable to mature and "gives his soul away" in order to resist time and nature.

Psychodynamically, an interplay between narcissistic tendencies ("timeless beauty"), the inability to progress and mature ("developmental arrest") and, finally, as a defense, the use of "medical lifestyle" products (hair growth restorers, erectile dysfunction drugs, weight loss medication, mood lifters, laser treatment of the skin, and aesthetic surgery to remove signs of the aging process) are seen.

Depressive episodes and suicidal crisis acompany the rest of symptoms because the hedonistic lifestyle used as a defense machanism is not sufficient to preserve the pacient's beauty.

C. Intervention

Unfortunatelly, Dorian Gray, consumed by the idea that his soul (the painting) is ugly and sinful he tries to stab the picture. But being under the effects of drugs, all was an halluciantion and he committed suicide.