Outside and emerging

Chapter 3 concerns Frodo&s;s more sustained attempts to remain outside the narcissistic enclosure of the claustrum and relate as a separate person to other objects. However, Strider/Aragorn, the father figure he encounters in Bree who might assist separation from the internal mother, is damaged and insufficient – thus Frodo falls prey again to his anxieties and is wounded on Weathertop by a Black Rider. This scene is approached in terms of Herbert Rosenfeld&s;s work on psychotic narcissistic organisations. Frodo is partly healed in the Elven kingdom of Rivendell, where, in Meltzer&s;s terms, he receives reparation through the father. The Fellowship of the Ring is also formed in the Elven kingdom, augmenting the group configuration which holds Frodo&s;s as yet unintegrated psychological potentials. Post-Rivendell, the Fellowship descends into the Mines of Moria, conceived of as a geographically confused rectum-breast claustrum. There they lose Gandalf, the central father figure, to the demonic Balrog. Shaken by the loss of Gandalf, the Fellowship enters Lórien, another Elven kingdom within which Frodo has the profound experience of the good breast; the internalisation of which Kleinian psychoanalysis conceives of as the foundation of a stable sense of self. This transformation in Frodo&s;s relationship with the mother is the developmental centrepiece of the novel and enables him to begin the process of integration, in contrast to his prior tendency to fragment without the claustrum&s;s dubious protection. This integration is symbolised by the gang (Black Riders) and group (Fellowship) configurations being left behind, with a more delineated form of splitting emerging, symbolised by the dyad, Frodo–Sam. In this integrative context, Gollum, as Frodo&s;s repressed infantile self, begins to come centre-stage in the tale in a process of disturbing growth.