Red Tears. Blue Dreams: The Freudian Defense Mechanisms and Object Relations in Jimmy Alcantara’s Paired Narratives (Red ang Luha ni Michael and Blue ang Kobre Kama ni Jake)

This study examines Jimmy Alcantara’s Red ang Luha ni Michael and Blue ang Kobrekama ni Jake through a psychoanalytic lens, focusing on the manifestation of denial, displacement, fantasy, and projection in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of Ricky. Using a qualitative literary analysis through the literary lens of psychoanalytic approach, the study applies the Hierarchy of Defense Mechanisms and Defense Mechanism Rating Scales Q-Sort (DMRS-Q) framework of Di Giuseppe and Perry (2021) as the basis for identifying and interpreting defensive patterns in the narratives. Object Relations Theory serves as a complementary perspective in examining Ricky’s emotional attachment to Michael and the psychological significance of objects associated with their relationship. The findings reveal that Ricky employs denial in resisting threatening realities, displacement in redirecting emotional conflict toward objects and his surroundings, fantasy in constructing an idealized family through Jake, and projection in attributing his psychological conflict to Michael. The analysis further demonstrates that the scarlet paint, transformed apartment, blue bedspread, and Jake transcend their material functions and become symbolic extensions of Ricky’s emotional attachment and desire for intimacy, stability, and belonging. Altogether, the findings suggest that Alcantara portrays psychological conflict through the interaction of defensive processes and symbolic attachment, gradually blurring the boundary between Ricky’s internal desires and external reality. The study contributes to a psychoanalytic reading of contemporary Filipino literature by demonstrating how defense mechanisms and object relations can illuminate the representation of emotional dependency, attachment, and psychological fragmentation in literary narratives.