Monsters embody brutality, twisted morality and irrationality – the banes of human existence, but the children of man's inner demons. In short, monsters are projections of man's evil self. The term creature can suggest monstrosity, and the creation of Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's novel can be seen as a personification of the Freudian id. In this case, however, the creature also mediates between its neurotic creator and societal values, just as the Freudian self, conditioned by the reality principle, mediates between outer reality and inner turmoil through of practicality. The ego is the driving force of the psyche and, arguably, the true protagonist of Frankenstein. But in the tug-of-war within the ego between the id and its law-abiding opposite – the superego – lies the real battlefield of Shelley's novel. Because ironically, the man of science embodies an id eaten away by the ego, a man-monster, but creates a man-monster who embodies his counterpart: an ego eaten away by the id. Following the death of his mother, Frankenstein's tinkering with resuscitation unconsciously shapes a symbiosis between him and his creation, between two tortured halves of a neurotic mind. In fact, Shelley's novel burrows deep into the crevices of Freud's psychoanalytic theory, oozing into the chasms of neurosis, repression, criminal acts, dream symbolism, and the Oedipus complex. Freud developed his theory from interactions with his neurotic patients and his own psychological experiences. He classifies an obsessive neurotic as someone who, if he is "aware of impulses in [himself] which seem very strange", is "led to actions the performance of which gives him no pleasure, but which is completely impossible for him. ] to be omitted” (Freud Abstracts 2). In Frankenstein...... middle of paper...... ll Stories. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. Freud, Sigmund. New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. Ed. James Strachey. Trans. James Strachey. Standard. Flight. 22. London: Hogarth Press, 1964.—. From the individual to society. Ed. Library of Congress Staff. July 23, 2010. Library of Congress. February 6, 2013.—. The essentials of psychoanalysis. Ed. Anna Freud. Penguin, 1986.—. Freud's summaries. Ed. Carrie Lee Rothgeb. February 6, 2013.—. The interpretation of dreams. Trans. James Strachey. London: Lowe and Brydone, 1954. Gilmore, David D. “Why Study Monsters?” Gilmore, David D. Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Kinds of Imaginary Terrors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. 210. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. 2nd. New York: WW Norton and company, 1818.