Avarice et psychopathologie. À propos de L’Avare de Molière : persécution et compensation

Abstract

ObjectivesFrom the pathological avarice of Harpagon in the play L’Avare (by Molière), we’ll show that this symptom has allowed Harpagon not to sink into madness, not to “derail” or “get out of the groove” (according to the etymology of the word “delusion”). The objective is therefore to report on the value of “preventive locums” (“suppleances”, according J. Lacan), or some of the so-called “compensation” symptoms. MethodologyThe article begins with a short review of the literature on the question of avarice in its relations to psychopathology. Then we will see all the elements that allow us to see the character of Harpagon not only as a domestic tyrant but as a true “persecuted-persecutor”. The theft of the famous “cassette” will shake deeply the psychic world of Harpagon. At this moment we see the emergence of delusion. This will be an opportunity to ask ourselves: what could avarice have been for Harpagon until then? ResultsAlways Harpagon is known as an unpleasant character, not only greedy, but also dry, hard, tyrannical, wary, proud, suspicious… Our study lead us to consider Harpagon's greed - the accumulation of his money, its gold, its “cassette” – as a means to fill a bottomless pit, a “chasm” that it is constantly about filling, and a cumulation that it is mainly about avoiding cutting. This can be deduced in part by his reactions to the loss of his “cassette-object” which really causes him to decompensate: paranoia, melancholic and claim, retribution elements… DiscussionThe discussion focuses on two interrelated points: the elements of persecution present in Harpagon, and the function of its pathological avarice in maintaining a state of relative stability. In particular, the importance of the “cassette-object” to Harpagon will be discussed; as its madness is triggered by its theft. ConclusionL’Avare is a comedy that somebody call “dark”. The character of Harpagon can be read and interpreted very differently: comical and/or ridiculous, or tragic, carried away by its pathological avarice. To take it seriously, to the letter, the play reveals all the importance that this avarice has for the precarious balance of the character, in other words it has for Harpagon a very special function, that of “support” for its existence. We see that an event related to being robbed, dispossessed, will come to falter his relationship to reality and to life itself, since Harpagon in his madness goes so far as to think of suicide.