From a Freudian perspective, anxiety plays a significant role in the maintenance of neurosis. Neurosis is maladaptive, repetitive behavior that occurs as a result of anxiety. Sol Nazerman is suffering from acute anxiety brought about by two significant events with the potential to trigger anxiety:
SolÆs loss of his family to the brutality of Nazi Germany represents the loss of a desired object. His loss of love for self stems from his feelings of shame and guilt over the fact that he survived while his loved ones did not. In The Pawnbroker, we see this most forcefully when SolÆs father-in-law Mendel harshly informs him: ôGuilty to find yourself alive...so you wrap yourself in a kind of shroud until you feel the same death as those that died. Does blood ever flow through you û can you feel pain?ö (Lumet, 1965). When Sol tells him, ôI surviveö, Mendel tells him: ôA cowardÆs survival. No love. No passion. No pity. Dead û Sol as a man. The walking deadö (Lumet, 1965).
SolÆs neurosis is maintained by a variety of defense mechanisms used by Sol to distort or deny the cause of his anxiety. SolÆs ego defense mechanisms distort reality and impair his ability to function. They become neuroses that impair his relationships with others and impact his functioning in a negative manner. Sol relies upon repression, denial, rationalization, reaction formation and projection. According to Nichols (et al. 2001) ôrepression forces a potentially anxiety-provoking event, idea or perception away from consciousness, thus precluding any resolutionö (54). SolÆs attempts at repression fail at times when events in the external environment trigger flashbacks of concentration camp existence. However, he uses a variety of defense mechanisms. He is lambasted by Rodriguez when the l
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