“We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow”: A Psychotherapeutic Study of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to explore Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot from a psychotherapeutic perspective, suggesting that the characters perform some representations that indicate their familiarity with psychotherapy. Drawing on different studies in the field of psychotherapy and psychiatry, I will argue that the play examines the influence of some psychotherapeutic practices on the characters’ mental health. In this way, this dissertation seeks to suggest that the play is far from being absurd as it portrays the human condition with its all complexities to produce a work that can communicate before it is understood.