Abstract
A KOHUTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON TANPINAR’S MAHUR BESTE: THE NARCISSISTIC VULNERABILITY OF BEHÇET BEY
This article examines Behçet Bey in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s Mahur Beste through Heinz Kohut’s self psychology, with a focus on fragile narcissism. In Kohut’s model, narcissism is not merely a pathology but a dynamic configuration linked to the development and maintenance of a cohesive self. The article argues that Behçet Bey’s self-organization is shaped by an idealizing dependence on the father figure, İsmail Molla, and by chronic failures of mirroring, which together intensify self-fragility. Through a close reading of key scenes and metaphors (the father’s voice, the epistolary economy, attempts “to get into his good graces,” and the “wounded spider” image), the analysis traces how validation seeking, shame, self-esteem regulation, and fears of disintegration are staged in the narrative. Methodologically, the study adopts an oeuvre-centered psychoanalytic literary criticism and matches textual indicators to Kohutian concepts. The article aims to show that Tanpınar’s father-son tension can be read not only as a social conflict.
Keywords
Mahur Beste, Behçet Bey, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Heinz Kohut, self psychology, narcissism