Psychoanalysis

So, I’m close to the end of the seventh and final book in the series and therefore close to reaching the tower. Susannah and Roland and Oy encounter Castle Discordia where the Crimson King used to rule and has abandoned to head towards the Tower. They meet fake Stephen Kings, three of them in fact. And they introduce themselves as basically the id, ego, and superego. Each Fake King speaks and communicates in the way you would expect each of the subconscious’s to communicate.

This presented an interesting take on the Ka-Tet. The Tet is brought together by Ka and they are meant to save the remaining Beams and then reach the tower. If we look at the Tet as a whole, at least the main components, are Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and Jake. Roland is the first and sole continuous character in the Tet working toward the Tower. So to assume Roland is the whole of the Tet embodied: Jake is the superego, a child and the most self sacrificing of the group, Eddie is the id, an adult male struggling with a heroin addiction and a sarcastic personality, Susannah is the ego, she is the combination of her own personal superego and id.

This is a hefty concept so allow me to expand. Jake is drawn into the tet twice, and twice he dies to further the quest for the Dark Tower. The first death he allows Roland to let him fall to his death so that Roland can continue his journey; the second death he jumps in front of the moving car to save Stephen King so that the writer can continue writing their story. This exemplifies the idea that Jake is the superego; the superego can be defined as the ideal self or the conscience. Jake is the ideal character that sacrifices himself in order to continue the journey.

Eddie is the first that Roland draws onto the beach. Eddie grew up in a lower class family, and him and his brother both were addicted to heroin. The id is generally defined as the part of the subconscious that is driven by pleasure or desire. In Eddie’s case, he is at first driven by the desire to get high, and on the beach to get back to his when. As Eddie’s character and the story develops, Eddie becomes the one in the group that keeps things lighthearted, if Eddie isn’t joking you know something is wrong. He doesn’t have the deep held desire to get to the tower like Roland, but he is kind of the backbone to the group, expressing concerns and feelings that the other members may be unwilling to share.

Susannah begins the story as Odetta and Detta, which is interesting to note because Susannah begins as an internal superego and id before she becomes the ego for herself and for the Tet. Odetta Holmes was self-sufficient, educated, and a civil rights activist – arguably a civil rights activist would be in the definition of the superego’s ideal self definition. Detta Walker, however, was aggressive, and vulgar, driven by her want to tease white men and then cut them off to see how angry they would get and arguably to show her power over them. Detta was the id within the body, driven by wants and desires, such as stealing from department stores even though Odetta was very rich. When they have to face each other they have to merge into Susannah Dean who embodies the ego. She is the middle ground between the superego of Odetta and the id of Detta. She also becomes the ego between Eddie’s id and Jake’s superego, and therefore the ego of the entire group. Each of the Tet represents the subconscious of Roland manifested, because he needs each of them to reach the Tower. And Susannah happens to be the only one that survives to go with Roland on the last stretch of road to the Dark Tower. The ego (Susannah in this case) is necessary to embody not only her own superego and id but also the superego and id of the group.