SOURCE: "The Satyricon of Petronius: Some Psycho-Analytical Considerations," The American Imago, Vol. 18, No. 4, Winter, 1961, pp. 353-69.

In the following essay, Sullivan contends that the psychosexual interests—particularly exhibitionism—of the characters in the Satyricon reflect Petronius's own, and are thus valid evidence in a psychoanalysis of the author.

1. Psycho-analytical studies like those of Freud on Dostoevsky and Jones on Hamlet, have thrown much light on modern works of literature, but except for mythological investigations like those of Otto Rank and Theodor Reik there has been no equivalent work undertaken for classical literature. Even the interest in the Oedipus cycle is predominantly a mythological interest. Yet ancient authors, just as much as modern, were governed in their art by their individual aims, wishes, stresses and unconscious pre-occupations and are therefore amenable to similar investigation; they have also the added attraction of belonging to societies radically different from the society...