This is Psychiatry

Sethe lay on her back, her head turned from him. Out of the corner of his eye, Paul D saw the float of her breasts and disliked it, the spread-away, flat roundness of them that he could definitely live without, never mind that downstairs he had held them as though they were the most expensive part of himself. And the wrought-iron maze he had explored in the kitchen like a gold miner pawing through pay dirt was in fact a revolting clump of scars. Not a tree, as she said. Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like any tree he knew because trees were inviting; things you could trust and be near; talk to if you wanted to as he frequently did since way back when he took the midday meal in the fields of Sweet Home. Always in the same place if he could, and choosing the place had been hard because Sweet Home had more pretty trees than any farm around.

It is clear from Paul D’s thoughts that he no longer wants Sethe’s body, he no longer admires it as he used to. He analyzes Sethe’s breasts, and sees that he no longer is attracted to them as he was when he came up behind her in the kitchen. They had a great value to him then, the breasts of “the new girl they dreamed of at night and fucked cows for at dawn,” but now she is something “he could definitely live without.” Even after all the lust he had for her and after going through the trouble to pleasure himself thinking about her, he realizes that he feels nothing for her. He was sure of his loss of desire, without any doubt, or a second thought, he knew he had lost his lust for her.

After analyzing her breasts, he goes on to analyze her scar - the scar on her back that he kissed so passionately. Laying by her side and recognizing the scar she claimed to look like a tree was nothing like a tree to him. A tree to him are “inviting; things you could trust and be near.” He found no comfort or alluring character about her scar. Her scar wasn’t as inviting as the “pretty trees” from Sweet Home. She is not someone he felt he could trust like he had trust for the trees at Sweet Home. One would think that thinking of Sweet Home would bring back bad memories since that is where he was enslaved, but it actually brought out the things that appealed to him about the plantation.

Looking deeper into his relationships, the relationships he had with people compared to relationships with inanimate objects, an impression is given that he prefers being with objects. Trees were appealing to him because they are objects that he can care for and talk to while they give back no reaction or emotion. Objects can’t hurt him; he has built a barrier in his mind that having a relationship with an object is better than having a relationship with actual people because he doesn’t want to get hurt. This is why he points out all of Sethe’s flaws, his ego is overcoming his id. His defense of pointing out her flaws to not be attracted to her has gotten him to control his sex drive. Sethe is just a depressed woman who is alone and finally got the attention she had been seeking. Paul D is the one who had given it to her, and although he had been longing for it he finds nothing special about her anymore because his superego has gotten in the way.