Oedipalization, Late Capitalism, and Modern Advertising in AMC’s Mad Men

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Publication Title

Evolving Cultures

Abstract

Caroline Shea writes that Mad Men’s leading man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the “ultimate Freudian character” and that the AMC TV series itself “has been a master class in psychoanalysis” as Draper is unable to escape the wounds of his childhood (paras. 1-2). The popular, long-running Mad Men (2007-2015) follows the workplace and family dramas of the men and women who work at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency, one of the top agencies on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. Shea cites Dr. Stephanie Newman, author of Mad Men on the Coach, to explain Don Draper, the most misunderstood man on Madison Avenue (paras. 2-3). Don’s past is marked with trauma, abuse, abandonment, and early exposure to sexuality. He was born to a prostitute who died at his birth and was referred to as Dick Whitman, the “whore’s son,” a constant reminder that he was never wanted nor was supposed to exist. Dick was raised on a farm by his abusive, alcoholic father and a cruel stepmother. The father was killed by a horse in front of him when Dick was ten. He moved with his stepmother to her sister’s house (a brothel) in Philadelphia. There, he is neglected and abused while being prematurely exposed to adult sexuality and faced with conflicting loyalties (Simha-Alpern and Klein 14-5). Draper spends his life unwittingly playing out the initial loss of his mother in a serial manner, provoking women to leave him. This pattern has included Betty, Faye, Rachel, Sylvia, and Megan. Draper self-soothes through a combination of sex and alcohol (Shea paras. 2-3). Because of his traumatic childhood, Draper has unresolved Oedipal  issues, he has not learned to identify with his father’s masculinity and to trust men. In his career, he is often distrustful and contemptuous of men who are in positions of authority.

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