The Narrator's Psychological Journey in Surfacing by AtwoodIn Surfacing, a novel by Margaret Atwood, the narrator undertakes three fundamental journeys: a physical quest to search for her lost father, a journey biographical in his past, and above all a psychological journey. The psychological journey allows the narrator to reconcile her past and ultimately leads to the conclusion of the physical journey. In this psychological journey into his inner self, the narrator, while traveling from conscious rational reasoning to dissociated subconscious reality, goes through three stages. In the first stage, the narrator is in contact with reality; she lives and exists in a state of mind known in Freudian psychology as the Ego. The Ego is defined as “the element of being which allows an individual to think, feel and act consciously and continually”. (Barnhardt, 667). The ego is based on a reality principle in which a person responds in “realistic ways that will bring long-term pleasure rather than pain or destruction” (Meyers, 414). The narrator's inability to cope with unpleasant thoughts such as her father's possible death is highlighted early in the novel. The narrator declares: “Nothing is the same anymore, I no longer know the way. I slide my tongue around the ice trying to focus on it, they put seaweed in it now but I'm starting to shake, why is the road different, he shouldn't have allowed them to do that , I want to turn around and go back to town and never know what happened to him, I'll start crying, that would be horrible, any of them. I would know what to do and neither would I. I bite into the cone and feel nothing for a minute except the knife-like pain in the side of my face... middle of paper... ...to reality: “The lake is calm, the trees surround me, asking nothing and giving nothing” (Atwood, 224). Thus, the narrator has completed a psychological journey from scam to madness and then looping again, traveling through three distinct stages: the Ego, the Superego, and the Id. The narrator by completing the psychological journey into the subconscious is able to resolve the biographical and physical journeys. Therefore, once past and present conflicts are resolved, it can most likely be assumed that the narrator will re-assimilate to reality. She might have a chance to become human again. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. Surface. Simon and Schuster: New York, 1972Barnhardt, Clarence L. Ed. The World Book Dictionary, Field Enterprises Publishing Co: Chicago, 1975. Meyers, David. Psychology. Worth posting: United States., 1992