Literature and Therapy

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim (Anglistik), course: Proseminar, language: English, abstract: Peter Schaffer's Equus was first published back in 1973. This play asks compelling and relevant questions about society today by first and foremost dealing with the character and personality of Alan Strang whose extraordinary capacity for passion serves as the underlying topic because it goes beyond the normal boundaries of modern society's acceptable views. After him committing a horrible crime, Alan's parents feel utterly helpless and turn to the middle-aged psychiatrist Dysart who agrees to treat him and seems to be the only one not giving up on the boy while he is trying to discover Alan's motives. In this process the reader is allowed to join Dysart on his psychologically demanding journey through the boy's tortured mind and is forced to re-evaluate the concepts of conscience and moral behaviour . Here I want to discuss Alan's ability to live in a dream world so ardently that he completely gives up reality and submerges in an idea of his own horse-god that can bring him the salvation no other entity is able to offer him in his own imagination.