D. H. Lawrence: The Artist as Psychologist by Daniel J. Schneider (review)

296Rocky Mountain Review DANIEL J. SCHNEIDER. D. H. Lawrence: The Artist as Psychologist. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1984. 313 p. Daniel J. Schneider attempts something on a grand scale. He wishes to prove that D. H. Lawrence was a healthy, not a sick individual, and further that Lawrence was a psychologist with substantial psychological theories that he manifested and worked through in his novels. To prove his contention Schneider devises an elaborate framework. In chapter 1 he introduces Lawrence's psychological theories under the heading "Materialism" and puts Lawrence's ideas next to those of Herbert Spencer, Ernest Haeckel, and William James. In chapter 2 Lawrence's ideas are juxtaposed with similar ideas in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. In chapter 3 Lawrence's own theories, as evidenced primarily in "Fantasia of the Unconscious" and "Psychoanalysis of the Unconscious ," are diagrammed and elucidated. By chapter 4, "Problems of the Artist-Psychologist," we are ready, at least minimally, for a recognition of how these psychological dimensions operate in Lawrence's art. And when we get to chapter 5, "Psychology and Art in the Early Novels," we are treated to an analysis of The White Peacock, The Trespasser, and Sons and Lovers with the idea that Lawrence, now, has been firmly established as a psychologist. Succeeding chapters cover The Rainbow, Women in Love, Aaron 's Rod (viewed as Lawrence's "letter to himself), Kangaroo, The Plumed Serpent, and Lady Chatterly's Lover. And, at last, in chapter 10, we are given "The Psychologist as Psychologist" which places prominent psychological theories — of Freud, Jung, Alfred Adler (and others of the Frankfurt School), and Erich Fromm — side by side with Lawrence's. What is the reader to make of this book? Does Schneider prove that Lawrence was, indeed, "sane and healthy" (xiii), detached and wise? The answer may be found in Schneider's own candid admission in his preface that "Now, after some thirty years' immersion in his writings and after violent swings in my attitudes — from worshipper to despiser to sobered admirer — I believe [F. R.] Leavis' case for Lawrence's essential health and wisdom can be made even stronger" (xiii). It took a long time for Schneider to be convinced. It is going to take the reader much longer than the experience of reading this book. It is not that Schneider is a poor literary critic. On the contrary, he is a good and conscientious one. The Artist as Psychologist is heavily researched, annotated, and footnoted. Schneider is careful (frequently to the point of tediousness and repetition ) with evidence from Lawrence's works, with the theories of other critics, and with his own conclusions. In his measured style he reveals complexities in Lawrence's thought and in his novels. What, then, is the essential drawback of Schneider's work? It is forced. The neater the theory, the closer the bow-tie to the chest, the more constrained the results. What we gain from The Artist as Psychologist is not necessarily that Lawrence was healthy. We do come away, however, with a richer sense of Lawrence's psychology and how his novels can benefit from readings with Lawrence's psychological theories in mind. In my view, though, the effort one must put out to gain these insights is not worth it. The analysis of the novels, particularly Women in Love and The Rainbow , is thorough and interesting. But their analysis, and that of the other novels, cannot be easily read without the structure of the first third of the book — and that initial section is pretty heavy going. Book Reviews297 In this closing paragraph I must raise the question of whom this book is for. I think it is directed, as a kind of responsa, to other Lawrence critics. A rather narrow audience! Without watering down his ideas, Schneider could have made the whole study more compact — perhaps less ambitious — thereby rendering it more accessible to students of literature, and among them, the avid reader of Lawrence. SHARON WEINSTEIN Hampton University ROGER SHARROCK. Saints, Sinners and Comedians: The Novels of Graham Greene. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984. 298 p. At age 80 and after half a century as a novelist, Graham...