Psychological Exploration of Inner Violence and the Ruptured Psyche in the Redrum of Stephen King's "The Shining"

The study investigates the principle characters in Stephen King’s novel entitled “The Shining”. The novel weaves a stream of conscious of psychosomatic experiences of childhood trauma, the destabilizing effects of isolation and the destructive patterns of family dysfunction into a narrative. Childhood Trauma unfolds psychological impulse and derives experiences from past events. Isolation and psychological breakdown are related overlapping psychological experiences when a lack or loss of social interaction and a lack or loss of emotional support leads to a deterioration of mental functioning. Family dysfunction is a persistent form of unhealthy relationships and interactions that interrupts emotional care, safety and well-being within the family unit. Power is a multifaceted and destructive power dynamic that shows itself in interpersonal control, family structures and the supernatural powers. Stephen King’s novel entitled “The Shining” is a clear example of such themes. The novel functions as a grim tale of the human mind under extreme stress. It weaves together the supernatural and the sociopolitical perspectives of life. Stephen King portrays the most terrifying 'ghosts' are not those that haunt the hallways of a hotel, but that reside within the memory of a dysfunctional family. The state of isolation, trauma, and power haunt the characters and systematically deconstruct every notion of the 'self,' by leaving behind a ruptured psyche where the boundaries between past, present and future, and reality and hallucination cease to exist. Thus, the novel “The Shinning” is viewed as an exploration of how inherited trauma, poisonous relationships and the isolating power of environment may converge to deconstruct the human psyche.