DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY REDISCOVERED: ‘NEGATIVE IDENTITY’ AND ‘EGO INTEGRITY VERSUS DESPAIR’ IN SAMUEL BECKETT'S ENDGAME

Samuel Beckett’s plays are regarded as ‘theatre of menace’; Endgame, one of the masterpieces of Beckett, is a typical example of it. Beckett's characters have contradictory and ambivalent relationships with each other. Their search for their identity through their inner thoughts’ interaction with the external world?the world of ‘existence and non-existence’?their necessity for ‘trust’ and the relatedness between age and ego are dealt with in this paper. Although these efforts are attempts to cover prospective contingency, the negativity of the past responds to the brokenness of the same life, in the same breath. Flashbacks turn identity search inside out, and the feeling of 'self-integrity versus despair' gains intensity in the process of old age. Needs vary from childhood to old age; accordingly, the reaction-based inferences relieve not only the ontological existence of the characters, but also their mental and spiritual beings. These reaction-based inferences lead sometimes to identity distortion, and sometimes bodily/physical depressions, and sometimes spiritual meltdowns; so, Beckett refers to the vital skills of the characters/ in modern/post-modern world order. This paper aims to reveal the probable reasons behind the identity crises of these characters as in line with Erikson’s psychological development stratagem such as self-actualization, esteem, love/belonging, safety and physiology. The psychological development of Beckett’s characters striving for concrete answers to their fragmented souls in the meaningless world in Endgame are depicted as fragmented psyches. ‘Ego integrity versus despair’ has been covered from a psychological perspective.