Wendy's Story: analytic perspectives on J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy

Abstract:  This essay is a study of Peter and Wendy, J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel based on his 1904 play Peter Pan. Utilizing Jungian and Kleinian theory, the tale is treated as an expression of Wendy's psyche in transformation, tracking her passage into puberty and the transition from omnipotent narcissism towards depressive concern which accompanied her differentiation from idealized identification with her mother. The resultant changes in Wendy's parental imagos are given particular emphasis, especially the moves towards the integration of her split paternal imago, symbolized by Peter Pan and Captain Hook. This enables Wendy's fuller engagement with the Oedipus situation, resulting in her assimilation of unconscious aspects of the instinctual feminine. In turn, she opens to a conception of parental intercourse which is more reality orientated and allows an internal sense of coupledom vital for her own capacity to form adult relationships.