The Barber as Doctor and the President as Patient - Bonus: Megachurches Connection

   What stood out for me in President's Barber were the several allusions to the doctor prototype via the barber. When the barber Han-mo rushes to the nearest hospital for his wife's delivery amidst the crowd of April 19 revolutionists, there are a couple of revolutionists who follow him under the impression that he may be a doctor for Han-mo dons a white coat that can pass off as a typical doctor outfit. Later Han-mo does explain the connection between his barber outfit to the medical profession by saying how doctors used to cut wounded soldiers' hair in addition to attending to their wounds, thereby giving him an excuse to wear what a doctor would wear.
 
   Once Han-mo becomes appointed as the barber of the president Park Chung-hee, I think symbolically Park becomes his patient who's in need of treatment but a treatment depending on his mental state. (Note: I may be going on a tangent here but this may be something related to the "unassigned" Freud essay). Don't you get the idea that President Park talks more and more about his past the more he converses with Han-mo? The president is probably the patient who "starts his treatment under the auspices of a mild and unpronounced positive transference" but one in which "it makes it possible for him to unearth his memories just as he would under hypnosis." (151). This mild and positive transference talked about here can allude to the minor pleasant feelings of getting a haircut and shave while being in a somewhat toned-down political atmosphere. With these conditions, President Park may have been at ease of asking personal questions to Han-mo (like "do you have any children?") and then talking about his memories which were once forgotten. The two significant memories I got from the character of the president were about his impression on the influx of ideas from Japan mixed into Korean politics (during the conversation on Plus Five) and that of the moment when he learned to be independent as an adult. When President Park talked about imported Japanese ideas, he came up with a solution of stopping these foreign ideas from spreading too much, which can be conceived as a treatment in a way. President Park was able to come out of his appointment with Han-mo with a remedy after having unleashed a certain memory.

   The megachurches lecture was short and straight-to-the-point. Reflecting upon the strong link between Christianity and construction, we can use this on a larger metaphorical scale in relation to the background setting of The President's Barber. We can say that Korea was constructing itself as an independent, modernized nation during Park Chung-hee's presidential term, and during that time, Christianity was growing at a faster rate with the added presence of construction on megachurches. Guest lecturer Judy Han had remarked on the exponential growth of megachurches when Park Chung-hee was in power.