PSYCHOANALYTICS

BEHIND BACATAN’S
“SMALLER AND
SMALLER CIRCLES”
A Critical Paper on the novel’s
psychoanalytic ideas on deathwork, and
trauma

Miguel Reynaldo F. Miranda

12D

March 18, 2019

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PSYCHOANALYTICS BEHIND BACATAN’S “SMALLER AND SMALLER

CIRCLES”

A Critical Paper on the novel’s psychoanalytic ideas on deathwork, and trauma

ABSTRACT

When murders are happening around Payatas, two Jesuit priests try to solve these

murders and who the murderer is. The murderer’s traumatic past may have something to do

with his traumatic past. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism can be directly related to the

story’s contexts and concepts. This paper will identify the story’s death work, motives and

trauma. This paper will dive deep into the story’s psychoanalytic concepts related to the story’s

characters and events which unfold.

Key Words: death work, trauma, fear of abandonment, psychological fear and castration anxiety
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In a small town of Payatas, two Jesuit priests, Father Gus Saenz and Father Jerome

Lucero, seek justice in the many issues present in their area. They were shown in the novel as

two very strong individuals who seek out justice and will always fight for what is right. The story

revolves around the many killings happening around Payatas, specifically the death of many

male children. It was seen in the novel how the alleged killer defaces them, removes internal

organs, and removes the child’s genitals. They identify in the latter portion of the novel who the

true killer is, a mobile clinic dentist named Alex Carlos, who has had a traumatic past of being

raped by his high school P.E. teacher. The choice Alex Carlos makes shows his unconscious

ultimately take over, using his traumatic experience as a drive or a motivator to kill Mr. Gorospe,

and eventually, the young children of Payatas.

The novel truly discussed societal issues present today, and it was really important for

readers to grasp the reality that these things do happen. This paper will identify the story’s death

work, motives and psychological trauma. This paper will dive deep into the story’s

psychoanalytic concepts and carefully analyze each character and event that occurs in the

story.

DEATH WORK

According to Sigmund Freud, “the goal of all life is death”. He believed that humans tend

to channel their death instincts outward. Instincts like these when directed inwards can result in

suicide. Freud suggested that people who experienced traumatic events would often reenact

that experience, and that people hold an unconscious desire to die but that life instincts largely

temper this said desire. It is also stated that “In Freud’s view, the compulsion to repeat was
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"something that would seem more primitive, more elementary, more instinctual than the

pleasure principle which it overrides." He further proposed that the death instincts were an

extension of that compulsion wherein all living organisms have an instinctive "pressure toward

death" which stands in stark contrast to the instinct to survive, procreate, and satisfy desires”

(Cherry, 2018) which furthermore describe his theory. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud,

1920), it is said that “In the psycho-analytical theory of the mind we take it for granted that the

course of mental processes is automatically regulated by the pleasure-principle‘: that is to say,

we believe that any given process originates in an unpleasant state of tension and thereupon

determines for itself such a path that its ultimate issue coincides with a relaxation of this tension,

i.e. with avoidance of pain‘ or with production of pleasure.”” This means to say that one’s

behavior originates from unwanted tension.

In the story, it is said that Alex Carlos, the killer, experienced a traumatic past, wherein

he was sexually assaulted by his high school P.E. teacher. This traumatic experience led him to

killing his P.E. teacher. But he wasn’t content with just this, and decides to go on a spree of

murdering young children and teens who were his age when he got sexually assaulted. This can

be described as the story’s “death work” or “death instinct”. Freud’s theory suggests that those

who suffer from a traumatic experience would often reenact a said experience.

KILLER’S MOTIVES

The killer’s traumatic past can be related to the killer’s motives. He was sexually

assaulted, and may have felt a part of him cease. This trauma may very well have let him

decide to murder these children, as how he felt when he was being raped by his former P.E.
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teacher. Saenz also wrote “is he depersonalizing his victims? Or is he, in some way, projecting

himself onto the victims?” which can be directly related to the story’s death work. This statement

of Saenz furthermore proves the statement that one’s traumatic basically past may basically be

repeated in a kind of big way. This generally is some sort of a revenge tactic in behalf of the

killer. Him being sexually abused by Mr. Gorospe may have led him to his extreme motives,

specifically ripping off internal organs and removing the penis.

These extreme motives further indicate the killer’s harsh feelings toward this traumatic

experience. This shows his anger to his abuser. To add, his anger led to his motives. However,

his killings of children who were his age when he was abused indicates that he hasn’t had

enough. When he was abused, he felt himself slowly die, and eventually become this person

who was hellbent on killing, so he murders children the same age as him before, to make them,

in a way, feel his pain and trauma.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA

According to Psychoanalysis, Psychological trauma generally is a stress that the mind

gets as a result of an unwanted or stressful event/s. These events can basically be caused by

man-made, technological disasters and fairly natural disasters, fairly kind of contrary to popular

belief. And the response can generally be varied based on the type of trauma as well as socio-

demographic and background factors, showing how and the response can basically actually be

varied based on the type of trauma as well as socio demographic and background factors in a

subtle way, contrary to popular belief. “Sigmund Freud examined the concept of psychological

trauma throughout his career. Jean Laplanche has given a general description of Freud's

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understanding of trauma, which varied significantly over the course of Freud's career: "An event

in the subject's life, defined by its intensity, by the subject's incapacity to respond adequately to

it and by the upheaval and long-lasting effects that it brings about in the psychical

organization"”. (Laplanche & Pontalis, 1967).

An example of Psychological Trauma experienced in the story is the trauma experienced

by Alex Carlos. This trauma was man-made, and was due to the sexual harassment he

experienced, given to him by his high school P.E. teacher, Mr. Gorospe. This lines in the novel

““You asked me whether or not he liked PE, or sports. He didn’t. He liked to play when he was a

child, but he was never really good at anything—basketball, badminton, none of that.” Now

she’s wringing her fingers together in her lap. “Something changed. Something changed him,

when he was in his second year of high school.” “What was it? What happened?” She waits a

moment: one final hesitation before the truth. “Sometime last year, he told us he ’d seen his old

PE teacher from high school. Mr. Gorospe. Isabelo Gorospe.” There’s anger, old and deep, in

her voice. “Tell me, Father, do you believe in evil? You must believe in evil— you’re a priest,

after all.” Jerome has a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach, a sense that he already knows

what she’s going to tell him next. “I do.” “A few days—maybe a week— after that meeting, he

said he wouldn’t be able to see us for a while.” Her large, dark eyes, so like Alex’s, are brimming

with tears. “Why? What happened between him and Mr. Gorospe?” Jerome asks. “Flora!”

Jerome and Mrs. Carlos are both startled as Mr. Carlos rushes toward them. “What are you

doing?” he demands, his voice echoing in the dome of the alcove. He turns to Jerome, as the

other people in the nave glance over their shoulders at the commotion. “You again! Didn’t I tell

you to stay away from us?” “Alex is in trouble. If Father Lucero can help him . . .” Mr. Carlos

takes her by the wrist and tries to drag her away, but she struggles. “Stop it! Stop it, Papa!” She

wrenches free of his grasp, then runs to the back of the alcove, putting distance and a series of
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pews between herself and her husband. “We didn ’t do anything, ” she sobs to Jerome. “We

didn’t ask questions.” “That’ s enough, Flora.” “Mr. Carlos—” “We sent Alex to a public school in

Quezon City,” she continues, cutting Jerome short. “We couldn’t afford anything better. When it

all began—when he started changing—we didn’t know what to do, who to trust. We were too

poor, too stupid. How could anyone expect us to know? Who would listen to us?” Mr. Carlos

sinks down into a pew, cradles his head in his hands. “Mama, please.” “Papa, don ’t you want to

help him?” Mrs. Carlos asks her husband.” This was continued with the lines “He looks up and

holds her gaze a long moment, their faces creased with deep-rooted anguish, pale with fresh

fear. As Jerome watches, they seem to reach a wordless understanding, and then Mr. Carlos

turns to him. “He became rebellious,” Mrs. Carlos sobs quietly, a leitmotif of misery to the numb

drone of her husband’ s voice. “Of course we started fighting. His mother and I would scream a

lot, but we tried, we tried so hard to reach him. One day—” He chokes, and his eyes fill with

tears. “One day I woke him up early for school, and I saw him. There was blood on the sheets,

on his shorts. Not much, just spots here and there. But I panicked. Started shouting. He tried to

get away, but I held him by the shoulders. I couldn’t make him understand that I was trying to

help him. I thought he was sick.” Jerome puts out a hand, touches the man’s shoulder gently.

“He begged me not to hurt him. He said he would be good; he would do what I wanted. Then he

wriggled free and ran to the bathroom. He locked the door, but I pounded and pounded until it

flew open. I made him show me.” Jerome is stunned. He imagines that the scenario Mr. Carlos

just described might have only served to exacerbate the young boy’s trauma. But he cannot

judge them—cannot be perceived to be judging them. “What did you see?” “He was bleeding.

He was sitting on the toilet seat, trying not to cry, but he was trying even harder to keep himself

from flying at me. From killing me.” Even after all these years, Mr. Carlos still seems shaken by

the memory of that day. He keeps running a hand through his sparse hair, plastering what’ s left

of it down onto his sweaty scalp. “What did you do?” Jerome asks. “Did you tell anyone? Did
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you try to get help?” A harsh little laugh. “Help? From whom?” “You didn’t tell anyone?” Jerome

looks at the husband, then at the wife, then back again, trying to tamp down his disbelief. “Did

you not understand how seriously your son was being hurt?” Mrs. Carlos comes closer, her

voice now eerily calm. “We were afraid. Nobody talked about such things back then.” Jerome

doesn’t quite know what to say. “You pulled him out of school, at least?” They shake their

heads. “So you let him stay there?” he asks, and he restrains himself in the nick of time from

asking, You allowed it to go on? “He was on scholarship at Payatas High. If we pulled him out,

we would not have had enough money to send him to school.” “But the scholarships stopped

anyway, right?” They both hesitate. “His PE teacher arranged for him to continue,” Mr. Carlos

says. “To this day, we ’ re not sure how.” A well-dressed woman—one of the few other people in

the church—gets up from her pew and walks toward the exit, the clicking of her heels bouncing

sharply off the walls and ceiling of the nave. Jerome waits until the sound has faded away. “But

the person who did this to Alex—it was the same teacher, yes? Mr. Gorospe?” “Yes.” Flora

Carlos reaches out blindly for her husband’ s hand, and he takes hers. “At the time, after Alex ’ s

grades started dropping and nobody would sponsor his studies any more, Gorospe came and

talked to us. He said he ’d take care of Alex, that he was just going through a normal phase that

all young boys go through. Told us not to give up on our son.” Mr. Carlos puts an arm around

his wife ’ s shoulders. “We were so grateful. It wasn ’t until years later that Alex told us it was

Gorospe who—” and he stops; the words are just too horrific to say aloud, in a church, to a

stranger. Jerome leans back in the pew, taking stock of what he ’ s learned. It’ s shattering:

when the scholarships dried up, Alex ’ s abuser had manipulated the situation, used the family ’

s poverty and need to keep him in school so he would have ready access to him.” These lines

really suggest that Alex Carlos, the killer, experienced really traumatic experiences as a high

school student.
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It was mentioned that Alex didn’t like P.E., and this traumatic experience may be the

sole cause of this. This can for all intents and purposes be the distressing event which caused

Carlos’ psychological trauma, demonstrating how this can literally be a distressing event which

caused Carlos’ psychological trauma in a subtle way. This psychological trauma may have

caused Alex Carlos to kill his teacher-molester, Mr. Gorospe. This trauma also led him to

becoming a full-on killer, murdering male children who were said to be his age when he got

abused. It was a shame to see Alex be abused by Mr. Gorospe just to keep his scholarship, due

to his poor family, a setting that may commonly be seen in our country.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism may as well be facts. His

theories and concepts are aligned with point in F.H. Batacan’s novel “Smaller and Smaller

Circles”. His concepts on death work and psychological trauma were evident and clearly

expressed in the novel. This furthermore, indicates that the Psychoanalytic Criticism can for the

most part be applied and mostly be used to definitely examine particularly human beings’

behaviors to fully kind of understand the generally possible causes for these actions, which

generally is fairly significant.

The story’s death work describes the killer’s desire to repeat his traumatic experience

and let others feel and experience it. This shows how Freud analyzes how one’s death instinct

is an extension of one’s compulsion. This death work was an extension of the killer’s anger

towards his abuser and signifies how he ultimately drove his own self to a life full of death

works, just to exact revenge on Mr. Gorospe.

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The killer’s motives is also an extension of his unconscious self. His harsh methods of

removing organs, genitals, and defacing his victims reflect upon his own experience at the hand

of his abuser. This shows his traumatic experience show itself to him from moments as he kills

his victims.

The trauma experienced by the killer was also evident in the novel. It clearly discussed

how the killer was sexually abused by his high school P.E. teacher. And this trauma led to him

developing a defense mechanism within himself, and that is to kill, kill till he’s satisfied. This

trauma was clearly shown to also shatter the killer, Alex Carlos, as this event left him

traumatized as a child, and eventually devoted himself to a life of murdering.

The concepts of psychoanalytic criticism, specifically the death work and trauma,

basically have been fully reimagined in this novel, and it furthermore proves its validity, showing

how the concepts of psychoanalytic criticism, specifically the death work and trauma, for the

most part have been fully reimagined in this novel, and it furthermore proves its validity, which

basically is quite significant. After careful evaluation, I can also vouch for the Psychoanalytic

criticism as it definitely was evident in the novel’s characters, which specifically is fairly

significant. The Psychoanalytic Criticism can also for the most part be used in our society today

in a for all intents and purposes major way. It can basically be used in for all intents and

purposes modern issues and problems. This can mostly be used in identifying causes of

behaviors in analyzing a human’s actions and events which may generally have caused this

person to act as so, which kind of shows that after careful evaluation, I can also vouch for the
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Psychoanalytic criticism as it for all intents and purposes was evident in the novel’s characters

in a subtle way.

***
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WORKS CITED

Batacan, Felisa H. Smaller and smaller circles. Soho Press, 2015.

Freud, Sigmund. "Beyond the pleasure principle." The Standard Edition of the Complete

Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVIII (1920-1922): Beyond the

Pleasure Principle, Group Psychology and Other Works. 1955. 1-64.

Laplanche, J.; Pontalis, J.B. “The Language of Psycho-Analysis.” W. W. Norton and

Company. 1967.pp. 465–9.

Neria, Y., Nandi, A., & Galea, S. “Post-traumatic stress disorder following disasters: a

systematic review”. 2008. 38(4), 467–480. Chicago

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