Crystal Weissenberger Dr. Seth Reno English 6880 A (CRN 3105) March 30, 2017 Robinson Crusoe: Schizophrenic Protagonist Once upon a time a man was enslaved in Africa, but, finally, there arose and opportunity for escape – and he took it. He freed himself and a young boy, too, by throwing a fellow slave (left in charge of them both) into the river. This small story fills us with hope and satisfaction, but . . . the rest of the story is not so wonderful. The ex-slave, immediately upon rescuing the young boy, tells him: “[I]f you will be faithful to me I’ll make you a great Man, but if you will not stroak your Face to be true to me, that is, swear by Mahomet and his father’s beard, I must throw you into the Sea too” (22). Later, this courageous man will sell the boy for “60 Pieces of Eight” (30). Although he expresses some little regret at the boy’s loss, he still agrees to sell him with the condition that the boy will go free in a decade “if he turn’d Christian” (30). There is no way for the man to ever know if this stipulation will be carried out, of course, and the likelihood of it happening are virtually nil, especially when you consider that they are trafficking in human beings. Who is this man, you ask? Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. In all the numerous reviews of Defoe’s novel, most fail to mention Defoe’s total lack of empathy for his fellow human beings, his conceit, his arrogance, and his sense of entitlement (along with several more personal flaws). Specifically, they fail to mention Crusoe’s likelihood of having a mental disorder: schizophrenia. Crusoe displays several symptoms of schizophrenia in Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe, such as social isolation and withdrawal, marked paranoia, hallucinations, a reliance on drugs and/or alcohol (to self-medicate), and a total lack of empathy. According to the online Encyclopedia of Psychology, Psychcentral, schizophrenia usually begins to manifest “in a person’s early 20s,” and during this on-set period, “a person may seem without goals in their life, become increasingly eccentric. . . They may isolate themselves and remove themselves from family situations” as well (“Schizophrenia Basics”). Early in Defoe’s novel, Crusoe confesses to ignoring his father’s good advice about career choices, and instead, abandons his family and sails to Africa; this action fits the profile of someone in the on-set stage of schizophrenia. Another sign of the mental disorder is that “someone with schizophrenia may act in an extremely paranoid manner,” like how Crusoe excessively builds walls and fortifications on his island when there were really no indications for many years that anyone else even knew the island existed. Further proof of Crusoe’s paranoia is when he finds “the Print of a Man’s naked foot on the Shore” in the sand, returns to his “Fortification,” and admits that he is “terrify’d to the last Degree, looking behind” himself “every two or three Steps, mistaking every Bush and Tree, and fancying every Stump at a Distance to be a Man” (Defoe 130). Crusoe does not first hope that rescue might be imminent; instead, he begins to speculate that the footprint has been left by the “Devil” to torment him. He does eventually dismiss this notion, but then decides that the footprint is left by “some more dangerous Creature,” the cannibals across the sea (which, in fairness, is likely) (Defoe 131). However, a typical, healthy response to seeing a footprint in the sand of the island one is stranded on would be to hope for liberation; also, one would stereotypically at least express the desire to be rescued when confronted with this situation. Crusoe never does – he simply concludes that the cannibals are coming to eat him for dinner or, failing that, that “they would find” his “Enclosure, destroy all” his “Corn, carry away all” his “Flock of tame Goats, and” he “should perish at last for meer Want” (Defoe 132). Thus, Crusoe’s reasoning upon finding a footprint on his island is to conclude firstly that the devil is tormenting him and lastly that he is going to die either from the cannibals “devouring” him or as the result of them stealing his food provisions. Crusoe does not display the logical emotions that many would make in this situation, such as expressing the desire to be rescued. Crusoe’s schizophrenia is causing him to display gross paranoia and almost reveling in his isolation. People who have schizophrenia also have “hallucinations and/or delusions, which reflect distortions in the perception and interpretation of reality” (“Schizophrenia Basics”). Although Crusoe is sick with the “Ague” when he has a “terrible Dream,” the extreme detail – and word choices – he uses when describing this fever-dream leads one to doubt that this is a mere dream rather than a hallucination: . . . I was sitting on the Ground on the Out-side of my Wall, where . . . I saw a Man descend from a great black Cloud, in a bright Flame of Fire . . . He was all over as bright as a Flame . . . his Countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful . . . when he stepp’d upon the Ground with his Feet, I thought the Earth trembl’d . . . and all the Air look’d. . . as if it had been fill’d with Flashes of Fire. He was no sooner landed upon the Earth, but he moved towards me, with a long Spear or Weapon in his Hand, to kill me; and . . . he spoke to me . . . Seeing all these Things have not brought thee to Repentance, now thou shalt die: At which Words, I thought he lifted up the Spear that was in his Hand, to kill me. (Defoe 75). This delusional dream is a further symptom of Crusoe’s schizophrenia (“Delusion of Granduer”). Specifically, this is a grandiose delusion. These types of hallucinations “may have religious context such as the person believes he or she has received a special message from God or another deity” (“Delusion of Grandeur”). Although Crusoe portrays this experience as the impetus for self-reflection, he also gives the lie to this when he turns to concocting a mixture of substances to self-medicate in its wake. Many schizophrenics turn to drug abuse to control their symptoms and the confusion that usually accompanies hallucinogenic episodes. Crusoe concocts his own “remedy” when he takes some tobacco and steeps it for “an Hour or two in some Rum” as well as burning some “upon a Pan of Coals, and held” his “Nose close over the Smoke” for “as long as” he “could bear it” (Defoe 80). Obviously, this drug abuse is nothing as severe as opium abuse would be, but it does offer further proof that Crusoe is displaying classic schizophrenic symptoms. Lastly, Crusoe shows a marked lack of empathy for others. Early in the novel we see this in his treatment of the slave-boy Xury. Even though Crusoe is himself an escaped slave, he seems remarkably unaware that he has enslaved a fellow human being, and he does this not once, but essentially several times in Defoe’s novel. Xury and Friday are directly labeled either slave or servant by Crusoe, but several other characters are just as much Crusoe’s slaves as these two are; after all, the people he freed on the island are sworn to be his “Subjects,” essentially making Crusoe “like a King” (Defoe 203). When Crusoe frees the Spanish captain from the cannibals who captured him, the captain swears “that he would never stir from” Crusoe “as long as he liv’d, till” Crusoe “gave him Orders, and that he would take” Crusoe’s “side to the last drop of his Blood” if the need arose (Defoe 206). There are always conditions when men are saved by Crusoe; it is never done without some benefit to him personally. Saving the Spanish captain, Crusoe demands these two conditions from his men: (1) “That while you stay on this island with me, you will not pretend to any Authority here; and if I put my Arms into your Hands, you will upon all Occasions give them up to me, and do no Prejudice to me or mine, upon this Island, and in the mean time be govern’d by my Orders. (2) That if the Ship is or may be recover’d, you will carry me and my Man to England Passage free” (Defoe 215). Crusoe is completely unconcerned with whether his “Man” might want to stay in his home with his own people; Friday is completely Crusoe’s property now and is expected to fall in with Crusoe’s desires and abandon his own. These are just a couple of the examples of Crusoe’s total lack of empathy towards others; people are tools or property only to make Crusoe’s life easier, better, and to give him the praise he so obviously craves. All the symptoms Crusoe displays show clearly that he is suffering from schizophrenia. According to the Mayo Clinic, a person must only display a minimum of five criteria of the twelve listed “in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association” to be diagnosed as schizophrenic. (“Narcissistic Personality Disorder”). Of those criteria, Crusoe displays eleven of these markers, but only a few are discussed above (it would take a much larger analysis to evaluate all eleven criteria). Since it takes five (social isolation and withdrawal, marked paranoia, hallucinations, a reliance on drugs and/or alcohol (to self-medicate), and a total lack of empathy) to diagnose a patient, Crusoe would immediately be evaluated and treated for his psychological disorder today. However, in his own time, Crusoe would only be viewed as being possibly a little snobbish for one of his social class while still being perfectly within his rights to enslave his fellow human beings. Works Cited Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford U Press, 2007. “Delusion of Grandeur.” Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2016, www.psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/delusion-of-grandeur/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Symptoms.” MayoClinic, 2017, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/basics/symptoms/CON-20025568. Accessed 18 March 2017. “Schizophrenia Basics: Delusions, Hallucinations and Onset.” Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2016, www.psychcentral.com/lib/schizophrenia-basics-delusions-hallucinations-onset/. Accessed 26 March 2017. Reflection As I read Robinson Crusoe, I was struck by his apparent lack of caring for anyone’s needs but his own. “Delusions of grandeur” kept popping into my mind, do when Dr. Reno asked us to look at the novel using another approach than the ones we discussed in class, decided on a psychological one – beginning with that initial impression. The research led me to schizophrenia; delusions of grandeur is a classic symptom of the disorder. There were twelve warning signs for someone with schizophrenia, and I could identify as many as eleven with direct quotes from the novel, and the last symptom was implied by the other eleven, but there were no direct quotes I could use to make a case for it. I also was led to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and felt that I could make a strong argument for that as well, but as I began to write the paper, I realized that I would need more than 2000 words to properly defend that line of argumentation. With that realization, I realized that I needed to simply stick with schizophrenia. As for my audience, I wanted to write an evaluation that could possibly be submitted to a literary journal, so my audience would be other literary academics with an interest in psychoanalytic criticism. This analysis would concern the protagonist of Defoe’s novel: Crusoe. I would need to write a much longer essay if I wanted to branch into either characters or into Defoe himself, and knew I would go over the wordcount requirement drastically. I also considered that many journal articles need to be kept a manageable wordcount as well; this helped lead me to the decision to only explore Crusoe’s schizophrenia as opposed to the specific Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Weissenberger 7