After On the Couch

We need to talk about Hardin Scott

Once I had read the book series After, I started to search for reviews and ratings about the novels from other readers - even before looking for the author Anna Todd's view. I wanted to know what other readers - like myself - had learned from the narrative. Similar to every novel that becomes a success, After had supporters on both sides: the ones who loved it and the ones who hated it. From my brief research, I could notice that the ones who loved it was the majority, even because they would spend more of their time talking about it. Among those who hated it, ninety percent of them said they didn't enjoy the book for the same reason: Hardin Scott and the 'Hessa' relationship are abusive.

I started to write analyses of the characters and I couldn't stand free from this claim. 'Hardin Scott is abusive', 'It's absurd that people are encouraged to read After', and so on. After the last text I wrote about he unfolding of Tessa Young's femininity which was (also) awaken by Hardin, I received some requests on social media to discuss how it is possible to have a happy ending in a relationship labeled as "toxic" like theirs.

So, let's go. In the first place, in order to give an opinion, I believe it's essential to read all 5 books of the series. Yes, the 4 After and Before (Hardin's story before Tessa). Essential. Have you read it? So, let's talk. Haven't you? Stop it right here if you don't want to read a spoiler and so you can understand my arguments better, as follows.

Hardin Scott has a past.

Yes, the ends justify the means. The choices we make in life are not always conscious. There are unconscious choices that keep us in the wrong way, even if we understand what the worst is. The therapy process is just for that. Anna Todd is careful enough to always reach for the character's moments of distress in order to explain in details his bad behavior. I'm not saying that excessive jealousy and the way that Hardin TRIES to control Tessa are 'the best way to have a relationship' - even because there's no 'ideal relationship', but Hardin lacks a role model for a relationship. He doesn't know what it means to hurt someone until he really cares about someone and understands what it is like to be hurt. Hardin is abused by life, by the absence of caring parents. He moves aways to a 'fraternity' but he cannot call it home either.

Hardin has an obsessional neurosis (not as a pathology, but as clinical structure) and shows the symptom of not accepting to lose anything, that's why he couldn't have a relationship with anyone. It's his fear of losing that makes him Tessa's hostage. Yes, from my point of view, he's the one who is more fragilized in relation with his lover.

The obsessional neurosis was worth a very broad study from the part of psychoanalysis. Previously, it was called 'mania without delirium' and also 'madness of doubt' by psychiatry. In general terms, Sigmund Freud stated in 1986 that obsessional neurosis served as a background to an event that 'provided pleasure'. Once he suggested such an innovative idea, the psychiatrist asserted that an excess of pleasure is experienced by the obsessional neurotic when they undergo some sexual activity in their childhood, and that this perception imposes on them guilt and self recrimination. Any similarity with Hardin Scott's story is just a coincidence (or not?).

Therefore, my dear friends, I do think it's absurd to have a superficial reading of After. Of course that, broadly speaking, excessive jealousy is pathological. And toxic. But once you hear Hardin Scott's 'voice' from the second book on, you can understand that the villain in the story is him fighting against himself.

Don't underestimate Tessa Young's strength.

To say quite simply that their relationship is abusive is to say, almost unintentionally, that Tessa is submissive to Hardin and that she doesn't have the power of decision. She has choices and make them well at the moment when she faces the reality of being a woman (if you haven't read the text about Tessa's femininity, click here to read more). It is not possible to ignore the character's pain in the relationship. Of course she suffers. A lot. However, keeping herself in this relationship is also her unconscious choice, for several reasons (some of them already discussed in the text Hardin on the couch). As she becomes aware of her own choices, she manages to put herself away and realize that the problem she had was actually Hardin's. Their relationship works after he goes to therapy. Not her. Thus, if there's something that is too much in the Hessa relationship, this should be love. She attaches herself to Hardin . When the relationship also starts to be led by reason, apart from emotion alone, she begins to change so his pathology kicks in.

Anna Todd once said in an interview that she identifies herself more with Hardin than with Tessa. Of course, the story is about Hardin. It's about him and about love. Anna's writing - just like any other writer's - is about herself, about her fears and her process of becoming more mature in relation to the other. Therefore there is some clear strength and message to be delivered here: there are some wrong attitudes and anger which only hurt those who feel them. And this someone needs help. How many people around the world do we lose for not being understood, just because they've made wrong choices? After is an important warning that we need to talk about these people who cannot love, as they have never learned how to do it. To point the finger at someone and talk about the other's problem is like blaming them for something they can't handle. And this is the role of art, to raise questions that should be discussed. And it's better to have them discussed by means of literature than because of victims from real life, isn't it?

Discriminating After for its 'abusive' drawback is like labeling literature that talks about suicide as a taboo subject. How many victims are necessary for us to start talking about this issue?

Is it possible to have a true happy ending?

Of course it is about a narrative in a romantic context, but when unconscious choices start to become conscious (from emotion to reason, broadly speaking), some kind of work can be done.

Recognizing the pathology and bringing to consciousness your unconscious choices (even Hardin's childhood, for instance), the possibility of change can be considered. If you read the 1st and the 5th books from the series, you'll see different characters. It's nothing like 'turning water into wine' or a 'miraculous change', but it's possible to see people who are more experienced from a relationship that was previously guided by love in an excessive way.

Anna Todd's message in the end, for me, is just: go for love, but love with responsibility. And it is really a shame for those who can't learn this lesson. If you're going to have a shallow reading of After, I really don't recommend it to anyone, but if you want to understand its essence, that we are doomed for our bad choices in the past - and that it's possible to change your pathway, this book has a lot to teach us about life.