{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]],"date-time":"2025-12-30T18:23:40Z","timestamp":1767119020831,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"BMJ","content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med Humanities"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,28]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    This article examines how kisses and knocks in Marcel Proust\u2019s\n                    <jats:italic>The Way By Swann\u2019s<\/jats:italic>\n                    and Samuel Beckett\u2019s\n                    <jats:italic>Molloy<\/jats:italic>\n                    serve as coping mechanisms to combat fear-driven insomnia. Since childhood, the Proustian narrator endures insomnia, finding solace either in his mother\u2019s tender kiss or its cherished memories. In contrast, the adult eponymous protagonist in Samuel Beckett\u2019s\n                    <jats:italic>Molloy<\/jats:italic>\n                    develops child-like anxiety about embodying his old mother\u2019s neurodegenerative afflictions by sleeping in her bed. Molloy\u2019s fear not only shapes the dynamics of his relationship with his mother but also the general maternal figure-son bond. This becomes evident when he absconds from Lousse\u2019s home and rejects her care when she replaces her dead dog with Molloy. Although the Proustian narrator and Molloy have profoundly different relationships with their mothers, it is evident that fear underlies the emotional complexities of their mother-son bond. While the former is afraid of being abandoned by his mother, the latter is scared of mirroring his old mother\u2019s neurodegenerative illness by sleeping in her bed. The fear-oriented mother-son relationship impacts their quality of sleep. Hence, the Proustian narrator uses his mother\u2019s kiss as an antidote to insomnia. On the other hand, Molloy knocks on his sleeping mother\u2019s head, emphasising the transactional nature of their relationship, thereby rejecting their genetic relationship as he is scared of inheriting her illness. Here, Mary Ainsworth\u2019s pioneering research on developmental psychology helps us delve deeper into the emotional intricacies of the mother-son relationship that cause sleep disorders experienced by the Proustian narrator and Molloy. This paper aims to bridge gaps in the existing scholarship on Proust and Beckett by examining the impact of mother-son relationship on the protagonists\u2019 quality of sleep and their coping mechanisms to combat insomnia.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medhum-2025-013453","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]],"date-time":"2025-12-30T18:20:29Z","timestamp":1767118829000},"page":"medhum-2025-013453","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Kisses and knocks: psychoemotional languages that shape the quality of sleep in Marcel Proust\u2019s\n                    <i>The Way By Swann\u2019s<\/i>\n                    and Samuel Beckett\u2019s\n                    <i>Molloy<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1136","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5644-1911","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Swati","family":"Joshi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Independent Researcher, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025123010202238000_medhum-2025-013453v1.1","unstructured":"Ainsworth M , et al . 1978. 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