«Flowers in the Attic» by V.C. Andrews and Maternal Narcissism.
When you start reading this book, you immediately immerse yourself in the warm comfort of a family idyll—one that every girl dreams of when she longs to get married. The house is full of abundance, the children are doll-like in their beauty, the wife is a perfect hostess, and the husband is the true head of the family. But when the perfect world of the Dollangengers shatters with the death of their father, entirely different events unfold before us, revealing one horrifying family secret after another.
Many reviewers of this book (and the film adaptation) blame the family’s wealth for causing all the events and fates described in the story. They also paint the patriarch, Foxworth, and his wife as the main "monsters" of the unfolding drama. Of course, these factors and characters cannot be dismissed. But, in my opinion, they are far from the most important elements of the novel’s plot.
For me, the far more pressing question was: why did a loving wife and mother suddenly transform into a monster who locked her own children in the attic for years—eventually even attempting to poison them with rat poison? What personality traits had to surface so clearly that they allowed a mother to resolve her, essentially, material problems in such a monstrous way?
It’s clear that personality pathologies can often remain hidden for a long time. The author of the novel brilliantly highlights this. But during life crises, a person’s true character structure typically becomes evident. I believe it was the absence of a clear self-image as a mother that led the Dollangenger children’s mother to make the fatal decisions she did. Her diffuse identity was compounded by the phenomenon of narcissistic personality disorder—a pathology marked by grandiosity, which prevented her from acting like a normal mother (even at the cost of her own well-being) when it came to her children. She easily chose to hide them in the attic. In fact, it’s entirely possible she invented this solution herself, as she herself was often locked in that same attic as a child. This outwardly beautiful woman had no qualms about locking away her four children in the attic for four long years (and the confinement could have lasted much longer had the children not escaped). Meanwhile, she lived a full aristocratic life—traveling, appearing in society columns around the world, enjoying a glamorous lifestyle, and feeling perfectly happy. She remained utterly indifferent to her children’s suffering, only acknowledging them when her crimes were exposed. She knew the attic was unbearably hot in summer and freezing in winter, that her children were wasting away without sunlight or fresh air, and that they were sometimes forgotten—left with nothing but stale bread to eat. After the death of her youngest son—whom she herself had poisoned—she dumped his body in the snow on a rural road.
What could have allowed a mother to remain so indifferent to her own children—the most significant people in her life?
At first glance, the mother of the Dollangenger children seems like an infantile personality—perhaps because she appears "clingy" first to her husband and then to her mother. We might imagine her as an unhappy but beautiful victim of circumstance. But upon closer reading, it becomes clear that this woman is quite mature and not identified with her supposed significant adults—her mother or her new husband. Every decision she makes is entirely her own.
It becomes evident that her personality is dominated by primitive defenses—devaluation (of her children’s health and lives, as well as moral and ethical values) and omnipotence (allowing her to easily dictate the fates of others). As a result, the novel portrays a classic narcissistic personality with clear signs of poorly integrated images of significant others and a disrupted sense of identity. This manifests in her value system, sense of duty, and, of course, her antisocial behavior, which crowns this tragic family saga.
As horrifying as the story of the Dollangenger-Foxworth family may be, the novel is fascinating to read—especially for psychologists.
