The Conflict Between Self and Other and Its Psychological Manifestations in the Poetry of Issam Abdul-Muhsin

Abstract

     The duality of self and other is a research topic that has garnered the attention of scholars and researchers in modern critical studies. It is a distinctive duality in which multiple perspectives, discourse construction, and expression of positions are possible. The relationship between them represents a central axis of the poet's relationship with his environment on the one hand, and its reflection on his poetic experience, whicch is the fertile ground for demonstrating cultural awareness and artistic creativity, on the other. The works of the poet Essam Abdel Mohsen serve as a sample for this study, in which I adopted psychoanalytic criticism to analyze the emotional structures reflected in the poet's works, revealing feelings of love, anxiety, and fragmentation, as well as portraying the internal turmoil he experiences while in a state of conflict between acceptance and rejection, and between communication and isolation,The self is not built from absence; rather, it is realized through its connection and interaction with the other, whose images vary according to that experience. It may come in the form of a person or a group, or be a cultural or political authority symbol, or something else. Accordingly, the study shows that Essam Abdel Mohsen’s poetry presents the self as a dynamic entity through continuous interaction with the other, which makes this duality the active element in the creative and poetic vision. The study concludes that the relational relationship between the self and the other is a close and inherent relationship in the construction and formation of the text, as the self cannot be understood without the other, and vice versa.