Quest for Identity in Select Novels of Doris Lessing

This book discusses the quest for identity in light of psychoanalytical theories in Doris Lessing's select novels.The feminine consciousness with respect to search of identity is discussed broadly under theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Erik Erikson. In the Eight novels addressed under this work showcase that all protagonists are unable to fit in all the divisions of personality types. The results have been extracted based on Lessing's own treatment of characters for evaluating their inner journey to find their 'self '. The protagonists of Lessing's novels have been found the victims of the crisis of their identity and they struggle to manage with their social circumstances, obsessions, and even madness. The theories have been individually applied to each protagonist of the novel under study and it was found that the quest is a journey not a destination. The theories of other psychoanalysts center on the cause-and-effect relationship with the phenomenon of the quest of an individual but it is Carl Jung's theory of individuation which encompasses the concept of this search as a continuous process.