A Psychoanalysis of Jay Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)

In this episode of "Emory Looks at Hollywood" Emory Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Jared DeFife, Ph.D., gives a psychoanalysis of one of literature's most mysterious and tragic characters, Jay Gatsby.

Emory University, a top research university located in Atlanta, Georgia, is an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged and diverse community whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care and social action.The university is recognized internationally for its outstanding liberal arts college, superb professional schools and one of the Southeast's leading health care systems.

Video Produced by: Stephen Beehler

[iclandgirl]

So many of us are like Gatsby- .  Unable to return to the past and unable to move on.

[kenllacer]

Foureyes: _Who is this Gatsby fella?_
Gatsby: _Sorry old sport, I thought you knew..._

[janecruz]

Lana’s song contributed so much to the movie’s atmosphere.

[tasiaalex]

People laughed at me when I raised my hand in class and told everyone how I thought the broken clock symbolized how Gatsby wanted time to stop or break from the present. He caught time but it was already broken.

Class of 2016. Look at me now. Still in bed trying to get up for work lol

[realitynotexist]

One important thing to me is to realize that Gatsby may possibly not love Daisy, he loves a kind of "idealization" of her or maybe what she represents through her lineage/money. There is a lot of elements in the novel pointing to the contrast between old money represented through Tom Buchanan and new money with Gatsby and also the place where they live: the contrast between East Egg/West Egg. Gatsby love for Daisy is a way to access this old aristocracy which he would normally not be able to reach because of his poor upbringings.
Secondly, there is a kind of criticism of materialistic America made by Fitzgerald: In the book, rich people (whether they are old/new money) seem to be so full of everything (in terms of possessions) but in the end they are poor inside: Gatsby dies lonely, Tom and Daisy don't love each other that is a just an intern-class marriage. People drink and party and entertain as a way to forget the emptiness and aimlessness of their lives.
Well, I may not be completely right or wrong but there certainly are a lot of different (and possibly not contradictories) interpretations to the story. Also the symbolism is very important in the novel: Gatsby fate seem to reproduce the fate of the American nation which is to say to push back the "frontier" (the undiscovered western land). Gatsby wants to go further, to earn more money, etc. Gatsby really embodies the idea of the American self-made man beginning from nothing and building his own success through hard work which is the essence of the American Dream. Yet, Fitzgerald challenges this American Dream: Gatsby's wealth was not made through honesty (he probably is a bootlegger) and in the end he dies alone.
The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite book and probably the best American novel to this day. I have re-read it like a thousand times and I can still discover new interpretations. Very powerful novel.

[aminat]

Nobody:

YouTube:let me recommend this psychoanalysis of The Great Gatsby from 7 years ago..

[lindsaymalone]

My favorite part of the movie is when nick says it’s his 30th birthday. Then he goes on to say how this decade of this life is suppose to be depressing and sad and lonely. And this book was written in the 1920’s so I think that somehow Fitzgerald saw the Great Depression coming, and he saw that all this materialistic wealth and parties were going to end sometime.

[EA-gejh]

I’m gonna be like Gatsby rich asf mysterious but ain’t dying for no Daisy

[ashanti]

Gatsby is very shady. He changed his name and built his empire off of crime. But, it was all for Daisy. Yet, in the end, that is what caused his downfall. The saddest thing is that no one showed up to his funeral, not even Daisy. At least, no one who he genuinely cared for or who cared for him. Nick showed up. Though, it wasn't enough.

[Xilotl]

This was Fitzgerald's story 😞 RIP. You may have thought yourself to be a failure, but you weren't. The Great Gatsby is one of my top 3 books of all time.

[bambyzn]

I'd love to see analysis of Daisy!

[iconian]

You know what I think the very most interesting thing about Jay Gatsby is?

A lot of people make a whole lot of assumptions about who Jay Gatsby is, what he's about, what his motivations are. Characters IN the book made their assumptions about him. Readers of the book and critics made their assumptions about him.

Yet, on the very first page of the book, Nick Carraway speaks about judgement--about how he has always been inclined to reserve it, as his father brought him up like that. That's what I see as the foundation for this story.

I have my own interpretations, my own way of reading the book, about what was meant about Gatsby, what kind of a person he was, and what his motivations were.

But at the least I'm willing to admit my interpretations might be wrong. I don't really know what Fitzgerald intended. But if I had to guess, I suspect that was the number one thing on Fitzgerald's mind. He DIDN'T want people making all these assumptions about Gatsby. Unless you REALLY got to know him, you couldn't understand him. And in the end, I don't think Nick or anyone did, which I think was just what Fitzgerald wanted. Even Fitzgerald couldn't quite understand him, I think. Fitzgerald once said that he never did have an entirely clear picture of just who Gatsby was.

He also said something to the effect that not one of critics that wrote reviews about The Great Gatsby really ever understood what the book was about. That, to me, is the most telling thing of all.

But of course, that's just my interpretation.

[ryanmahoney]

I remember reading Gatsby in high school, and it didn’t really connect with me. I wasn’t mature enough—not enough life experience. I went on to become an English professor and lost my own “Daisy” and now it hits home like no other piece of art. What we don’t learn in Gatsby is what would happen to him if he was forced to keep on living after he lost Daisy. That’s the story I need in my life. Was it a blessing that he wasn’t forced to redefine his purpose in life? What does he do with all that energy and drive once Daisy is no longer an option?

[Emyx]

I think what mostly goes unnoticed is the fact that he has these child like actions when he is about to meet daisy again for the first time.
It just shows that their relationship takes him back to the person he used to be before all the succes and the war formed this other more grown up version of him.
However I think in this very scene you see his persona falling apart and you realize it was all just an act.

There was never any personal or rather emotional growth that came with the things he has endured.
He never wanted to be that person he portrayed he just wanted to be enough.
This is truly one of the most tragic parts of his character in the movie.

He was still this young man who was deeply in love with this person that came from a background where the values in the peoples mindset were just too big of a difference to overcome.
An ideal that he tried to fit in but never really did. That is why after the party is over no one attended his funeral.
He was never one of them.

[Muirmaiden]

Gatsby loved the "idea" of Daisy or the Daisy that once was, when the met just before the war. When he came back into her life, he knew she was married and had a child, but he didn't want to admit to himself that Daisy and Tom had ever been intimate and in the book, when he sees their daughter, it's a telling moment because she is proof that Daisy and Tom did in fact, consummate their union. He tries to ignore what was right in front of him; and Daisy couldn't just walk away from her life, although part of her may have wanted to. Tom would never have let her go and she had a child to consider. Gatsby was an idealist, and refused to accept reality. That was what led to his downfall.

[abdullahasaad]

Something changes everytime I watch or read this novel again. It really touches my heart in a way that I cannot describe.

[sallylemon]

In a way i like how psychoanalysis reveals that love isn't everything. Gatsby's love for Daisy isn't just love but comes with resentment and denial, so he is willing to put aside his pride and worship her and her flaws. And Daisy is his symbol of good catch. He wants to be rich and get the rich girl and prove he can support her with luxury. That's a hell of rich combo. It's not the same like being rich supporting a poor girl, because you gotta gain the rich girl's ego, this is an achievement compared to flatter a grateful poor girl, or being poor with a rich girl who accept his poor self, because even he despises himself bring poor. Gatsby is an obsessed sober man to Daisy, she may find him annoying, while the man Daisy settles for, Tom, besides being rich for he is already rich and doing successful, he takes pride originally on himself that Daisy finds comfort in looking up to and hang on him for, doesn't matter if he's a jerk. Tom has the personality alongside reputation, unlike Gatsby who isn't originally rich and just turn so for the sake of Daisy and his denial to his poor origin.

[bukowski]

Gatsby simply portrayed its writer, Fitzgerald about his obsession over his wife Zelda, and Zelda’s obsession over self validation by being a socialite and throwing one party to another extravagant one. He became a rich and success writer only to impressed her. And in the end, deep down inside he knew the only thing he got was himself. It’s too tragic that a brilliant man like Fitzgerald have to ended up like that, in fact he had a trouble with debt till death. Fitzgerald is my top list writer, Great Gatsby, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Beautiful and Damned, etc.

[cathyaudette]

I am SO glad I've finally read this book!  I caught the last 20 minutes of the movie and was hooked.  I bought a copy of the book, and I've read and re-read it ever since.  As with most really good stories, you can re-read it and find something new to ponder upon.  I hope to see this movie in it's entirety soon.

[funkysockslover]

Just a correction, Gatsby wasn't seventeen when he met Daisy, he met her five years before he saw her again and when they meet again he is around 30 odd..