However, his level of self-differentiation does not allow him to 600 Forum for World Literature Studies / Vol.12 No.4 December 2020 be an idol instead, he remains in the margin, and his life remains ephemeral, as evanescent as "perfume." Accordingly, he is guided by his emotions in his contact with others and not autonomous in his thinking. Grenouille, it is concluded, has a low level of self-differentiation, i.e. Adopting a psychiatric approach, the article examines the functional level of Grenouille's differentiation in three emotional systems and relationship processes: with Madame Gaillard, the tanner Grimal, and the perfumer Giuseppe Baldini. However, he ends up tragically by being devoured with lust rather than love, ironically because of his special concocted perfume. In his quest to have a unique personal scent, Grenouille becomes an obsessed murderer of twenty-five girls. Using Murray Bowen's concept of self-differentiation, this article investigates the theme of marginalization in Süskind's Perfume by examining emotional webs of interrelationships between Grenouille and those around him in different social, institutional, and cultural capacities. The protagonist, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, has a supernatural ability to identify the odors of almost everything around him, yet he remains an undifferentiated self in psychiatric terms, seeking love, influence, and acceptance. The German writer Patrick Süskind symbolically projects the power of scents in his historical fantasy novel, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
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