This play Equus explores questions about what is Normal and to what extent society will go to normalize people, or to lock them away somewhere if they can't be normalized. The role of the psychiatrist in this process both challenges and depresses Dr. Dysart, who hates the losses such normalization necessarily requires, and finds himself envying the passionate obsessions of his patient Alan, and his ability to worship those obsessions.

Passion is what can kill you, yet passion is also where you can find life. It all depends on what the object of your passion and worship is, what and/or who is driving your passion, and whether or not that passion is balanced. The goal of the therapist is not to extinguish the passion, but rather to redirect it towards a healthier edict. In the case of Alan Strang, the passion is driving him, instead of him driving the passion or better yet God driving the passion.

Is the object of his passion wrong? Is the passion itself wrong? Who will Alan worship, the creature or the creator? Man will worship someone or something? We are all created to worship something, but what or whom will we worship? Who will our idol(s) be? No, passion is not wrong, but it can be misdirected towards the wrong object. Therefore, Alan’s passion is not wrong but his unbridled passion being towards Equus (the horse) is idolatrous. He is worshipping the creature rather than the creator. He resurrects his own alter, his own god, his own idol, his own sacred and secret place, his own sanctuary (Romans 1:18-25). Idols are a reduction of authentic mystery, yet Alan creates his idol, Equus, to be a false mystery. The mystery that Alan is moving towards is not a redemptive mystery but a mystery that in the end will leave him empty and desolate.

Alan’s idolatry feels like real life to him, but it is only momentary. It is thrilling, the thrill of the release, a giving over, a freedom of desires that are complete for a moment. The tragedy of this is that the desire and thrill won’t last. Alan may experience real life for a moment, but after the thrill and release will come the emptiness, loneliness, guilt, shame and disappointment. But even though man is carving out other gods, carving out another image of himself, carving an idol of himself out of cypress wood that is to be his God, “he feeds on ashes rather than turning to the true God,” God promises, “I will not forget you my Israel. Even if you forget me, even though you worship other gods; have ashes on your face, I will not forget you” (Isaiah 44: 6-20).

A 17 year-old boy, Alan, is brought to a psychiatric hospital because he has blinded several horses with a hoof pick. A child psychiatrist, Dysart, works to "normalize" the boy, all the while feeling that though he makes the boy 'safe' for society, he is taking away from him his passion, worship and sexual vitality--both of which are missing in the doctor's own personal life. He actually envies Alan the sexual worship he has experienced. In spite of his own hang-ups, though, the doctor does help the boy work through his obsession, which identifies the horse Equus with God. But the doctor comments that "when Equus leaves--if he leaves at all--it will be with your intestines in his teeth. . . . I'll give him [Alan] the good Normal world . . . take his pain away… and give him Normal places for his ecstasy. . . Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. But it cannot be created. Therapy is throwing the patient into the world of normalcy without passion. We may kill the pain in the patient, but at the same time kill his or her passion. “Cutting open children to spill their guts out is violent, just as violent if not more than piercing out the eyes of horses.”

Never in all his years of psychoanalysis had Dr. Dysart ever encountered such a compelling case as this one. Hesther Salomon, a court magistrate, referred Alan Strang, the seventeen-year-old who had been found guilty of blinding six horses to him. Through careful analysis, Dr. Dysart developed a theory for what caused the boy to commit such a heinous crime, including the series of events leading up to his mental instability.

His mother was the dominant provider of education throughout Alan’s childhood. Beginning in his early years, she would read to him aloud by his bedside nightly. Alan’s ears were frequently drilled with the story of Prince the horse. Mrs. Strang informed Dr. Dysart on how Alan loved it when she would take on the voice of Prince as she read, "Only my young Master can ride me! Anyone else I’ll throw off!" Nightly readings of the Bible also took place. In fact, Mrs. Strang shared with Dr. Dysart one particular story that she used to tell Alan about, involving Christian cavalry, and how upon their arrival in the New World, horse and rider were thought to be one Supreme Being by the awestruck pagans. She informed Alan that not until a rider was seen falling off his horse was it recognized that the two were separate. Hearing this story introduced Alan to the idea of the horse as a stately god-like figure. Mrs. Strang also acquainted Alan with the word "equus", Latin for horse, which became the name of his god.

Furthermore, Alan was taught what little he knew about sex by his mother, who claims to have taught him not only the biological facts, but also how she believes sex to be a wondrous spiritual unification, willed only by God. Hence, "his task", as declared by his mother, was to ready himself for this monumental event. And afterwards, he might find the ultimate love. Mrs. Strang’s religion was cold, detached, mysterious, non-personable, inaccessible and vain. Mere religion such as this can deaden the healthy passion in one’s soul, as it did in the case of Alan Strang.

The relationship between Alan and his father is practically nonexistent. Alan’s father does not believe in religion and therefore completely disagrees with his wife’s fanatical indoctrination of their son. However, Mr. Strang makes no effort to do anything about the situation. In fact, instead of trying to free Alan from his mother’s grip, Mr. Strang continually causes Alan shame and lowers his self-esteem. The reticent printer also takes things away from Alan, which are enjoyable to him. He forbids him to watch television, indeed won’t allow a television set in the house, although his mother allows him to sneak off to a neighbor’s house to watch Western movies. His father also tore down an admittedly macabre picture of Christ, which was hanging over his bed. This gruesome rendering of the martyred Jesus on the road to Calvary was replaced with a poster of a horse. However, the prime example of Mr. Strang’s intruding on something that Alan enjoyed occurred on a very significant day. This was on the day of Alan’s first experience with a horse, when he was six years old.

The Strang family took a day trip to the beach, and as Alan was playing in the sand, a man approached him on a horse. Alan looked up into the horse’s face, quite the same as he looked up to the image above his bed, and was offered a ride by the stranger. Alan accepted, and the thrilling ride initiated his sexual association with horses. He told Dr. Dysart how the experience was sexy for him, how he was being pushed up on the horse’s neck, while the sweat from the horse coursed down his legs. He felt a oneness with the horse, a passion, a freedom and a power that was abruptly and cruelly destroyed by his father, when he angrily yanked Alan off the horse.

The undifferentiated relationship with his mother and father seems to be the fuel, which propels Alan into false intimacy that eventually leads to his idolatrous worship of Equus. Idols are always in one’s own image, not the image of God. Therefore, Alan’s oneness with the horse equals idolatry: idol worship of himself first and then of Equus.

Alan told Dr. Dysart of his many secret experiences thereafter with horses. He would visit the stables every three weeks late at night and take the horses out. He took them to a particular field that he calls the horse’s place of "Ha Ha", the sanctuary Alan had created. His mother had read to him about horses in the Bible, and one particular line from the Book of Job that greatly influenced him: "He saith among the trumpets, Ha ha." In this field, Alan would ride the horse completely naked at breakneck speed. These excursions were the only sexually associated experiences Alan had undergone before he met Jill.

Alan’s date with Jill catapulted his mental breakdown. Another example of Mr. Strang’s ruining something enjoyable for Alan occurred in the movie theater that night, when Alan was watching a pornographic film with Jill, and his father walked in and saw him. Once again, Mr. Strang caused Alan a sense of shame, even though he himself had been keeping idolatrous secrets. Talking to Alan about his date with Jill, Dr. Dysart learned of how he was sweetly seduced by her. Jill brought Alan to the stables, where she began to initiate manipulating him into having sex. Initially, Alan was very enthusiastic about the act with Jill. However, in the end, he was unable to go through with the act, because although he was with Jill, he could only see Equus, and he could not feel her flesh, but only a horse’s hide.

It is only in the seeing of Jill naked and pursuing her sexually that the power of his idolatry is lost. The horses, his false gods (idols), see Alan. His idolatry has been exposed. He is shamed once again, his secret has been exposed, and his sin is found out. The only thing that equals his idolatry of the horse is seeing Jill naked and having sex with her. The exposure of Alan’s sexuality and sexual activity with Jill had the power to explode the idolatry and worship of Equus.

A person cannot worship two gods. The two gods will always be in competition for one’s loyalty. It will lead to the hating of one and the loving of the other. Alan’s worship of the horse was in competition with his obvious attraction, and desire for intimacy with Jill. But he will have to leave his loyalty to Equus, his domineering mother and nonexistent father in order to build a new loyalty, intimacy, and a one-flesh union with Jill, even more importantly to build a new loyalty and intimacy with the true God. In Alan being seen by his false gods, he sees his own futility and the infallibility of the gods (idols) he has created to worship.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their own bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” Romans 1:24,25 NIV.

What went wrong with Alan? Alan exemplifies a great example of unbridled, uncontained, unleashed worship, passion and desire. Why did it get off track? Why was it misdirected? First of all, Alan had no community, no connection with others. Therefore, he created a relationship, a connection with something else, Equus. Secondly, he had no celebration. No one celebrated his passion and his celebration for life. His father kills Alan’s passion and calls it evil. No celebration has the same effect as killing passion. Alan was not able to see the reality of the true God. He was unable to experience the authentic glory of God. He “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (1:25). And finally, Alan was not allowed to grieve. He had no safe place to give himself over to the sorrows of his life. So with no community, no connection, no celebration, no sanctuary, no place to express his passion, his worship or his sorrow he created all these places for himself.

In more traditional terms of psychoanalysis, it is apparent to me that Equus, associated with God, in the boy’s feverish, lively imagination is a link to Alan’s mother. Because his father essentially rejects Alan, his mother becomes the dominant figure for him to look up to and seek guidance from in his life. In fact, his lack of a relationship with his father strengthens the Oedipal tie between Alan and his mother, and gives her more power over him. Alan visits his field of "Ha Ha" as a means of feeling both a transcendental or spiritual and a sexual form of oneness with Equus, which is in turn with God, and in turn with his mother. Just as Prince is faithful only to his master, Alan feels he must be faithful to Equus, which is why his having sex with Jill would have been an act of such unmitigated heresy for him. For Alan, doing so would have been a betrayal of Equus, God, and his mother. In actuality, this act represents Alan’s growing up and his becoming independent and autonomous. Mrs. Strang obviously does not want Alan to grow up, whether she admits it or not. When Alan sensed Equus watching him with Jill, it was a symbol of the constant maternal authority looming over him. By blinding the horses, Alan was inherently trying to free himself from the grip of his mother. He was fighting for his own development, independence, and his right to grow up.