진화정신의학 관점에서 본〈 에쿠우스〉

Abstract

Science and technology have defined the limits of the worldview in any era. Since the production and interpretation of works of art are based on this worldview, the development of science stimulates the reinterpretation of art works. Just as Freud's discovery of the unconsciousness presented a new perspective on life and art as a psychoanalytic interpretation, Darwin's theory of the evolution has led to the development of evolutionary psychology that understands all aspects of human psychology from the evolutionary perspective. This paper adds a new interpretation by analyzing Equus from the perspective of evolutionary psychiatry, a branch of psychiatry based on evolutionary psychology. Specifically, we interpret from the evolutionary psychiatry point of view where the psychopathic characteristics of Alan's behavior reveal anxiety, addiction, and delusion. Evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry have identified the interactions between genes and their environment over evolutionary time to discover a variety of factors affecting normal and abnormal judgments, many of which vary across social and cultural contexts. These features are well-illustrated in Alan's anxiety, addiction, and delusional symptoms, which continue to confuse Dysart and the audience about the boundaries between normal and abnormal. After all, this confusion is due to instincts developed in the evolving process of human psychology interacting with the environment. This paper will be an attempt at art interpretation in line with changes in perception with the development of science, by understanding an artwork written from the psychoanalysis perspective of the past century with a state-of-the-art point of view of evolutionary psychiatry.