Diagnosing Lady MacBeth

I thought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth is murdering sleep.” Innocent sleep. Sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary laborer and heals hurt minds. Sleep, the main course in life’s feast, and the most nourishing.

• MacBeth Act 2 Scene 2

There can be no doubt that Macbeth is a tragedy. It is filled with ominous prophecy and - above all else - death. The key plot point is the murder of King Duncan committed by the MacBeths to secure their power. From that murder, all others seem to flow. Murder and violence seems to haunt the Macbeths. Lady MacBeth in particular loses all touch with reality and ultimately ends her own life. She seems to suffer the most from the trauma.

And that is what Dr. Lisa Grogan and I will be discussing today. We will examine the psychological symptoms displayed by Lady MacBeth and discuss how accurately they represent the trauma response. There is discussion of trauma, PTSD, and suicide in this episode, so if that will bother you, it may be best to skip this episode. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the dark depths of Lady MacBeth.

 

Teller of Tales by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4467-teller-of-the-tales

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 

Minstrel Guild by KevinMacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4056-minstrel-guild

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/