The ice-man melts
Consternation gripped English rugby fans recently when the England team were nearly defeated in the Rugby World Cup by tiny Samoa. Without underestimating the skill and commitment of the Samoan team, it cannot be denied that it was an under par performance by the World Cup favourites. Particular disappointment was felt at the lacklustre contribution of fly half Johnny Wilkinson, whose recent rise to sports super-stardom is best illustrated by his pairing with David Beckham in a TV commercial. Johnny seemed out of sorts and, for the most part, out of the game. Clearly the manager was partly to blame for strange tactical decisions which were presumably designed to protect the precious asset, but which in fact only served to make him ineffective. However, it is impossible to see how the tactical mistakes can be blamed for Wilkinson's poor place kicking.
Johnny Wilkinson is frequently depicted by pundits as someone without 'nerves'. He is the ice-man whose uneering accuracy with the boot has been a constant in England's all conquering game over the last two years. With each kick, no matter how simple, he goes through a careful sequence of actions, which inevitably end with the ball soaring over the bar. How did it fall apart so disasterously against Samoa? He missed two kicks in front of the posts which the match commentator described as 'unbelievable'.
Freud would not have been surpised at Wilkinson's unaccountable loss of form. He would have classified it as an "inhibition in work" in which "the subject feels a decrease in his pleasure in it or becomes less able to do it well" ('Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety') Freud shows that underperformance in work can come from a surprising source. Not fear of failure, but an unconscious fear of success.
Apart from the (Oedipal) dangers of 'going further than one's father', success raises us above our peers, loses us the security of the group (the band of brothers), and opens us to attack. When Asdiwal bags four polar bears while his fellow hunters come back with nothing, his confreers express their disappointment at the result by leaving him on a ice flow to die. (Levi-Strauss 'The story of Asdiwal' in Structural Anthroplogy Volume II). For Freud, it is the 'superego' which embodies the ties which bind us to the group. Thus:
"There are clearly also inhibitions which serve the purpose of self punishment. This is often the case in inhibitions of professional activities. The ego is not allowed to carry on those activities, because they would bring success and gain, and these are things which the severe superego has forbidden. So the ego gives them up too, in order to avoid coming into conflict with the superego." (pp6-7)
Johnny Wilkinson, the man without nerves, was getting too big for his boots ... and that was dangerous.
Freud would have understood Johnny Wilkinson's diffculty and may also have been able to predict it. On the day before the match there appeared a taunting headline in an Australia newspaper which brilliantly separated the player from the rest of his team and thus created the conditions for an enormous intensification of his anxiety ('stress'). Over a full page picture of Wilkinson were emblazoned the words:
"IS THIS ALL YOU'VE GOT?"
Freud Today | Education page