Psychoanalysis and the Lord of the Rings: A Meltzerian Perspective on Frodo’s Journey

Psychoanalysis and The Lord of the Rings offers a psychoanalytical perspective on Tolkien’s masterpiece, informed by the Kleinian school within psychoanalysis, especially the work of Donald Meltzer. Treating Tolkien’s work as a Bildungsroman, a forming novel or coming-of-age tale, this study tracks Frodo’s journey as the evolving ego of the story whilst other characters, in the main, are his internal objects. The various domains he passes through in Middle-earth strongly correlate with Meltzer’s descriptions of life inside the compartments of the internal mother: an unconscious phantasy of retreat to seemingly safe ’enclosed spaces’, or ’claustra’. The book presents a coherent psychoanalytical interpretation of Frodo’s journey and breaks down Meltzer’s challenging ideas to make them more accessible in the context of Frodo’s adventure. This book is primarily for scholars of Tolkien Studies, as well as literary scholars interested in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical approaches to twentieth-century literature.

Adrian Smith teaches Religious Studies and Philosophy at a London independent school and has just completed his PhD at University College London. He regularly engages with literary studies through psychoanalysis and has published in the Journal of Analytical Psychology.