鋼情教師的背景是設在音樂被所有人視為是最崇高、重要的維也納， 艾瑞卡從小也被母親期待要成為世界聞名的鋼琴家；母親的目標使得她必須活在永無止盡的練習、競爭比賽的壓力下。本論文主要在探討書中的女性為了要在父權的菁英文化中取得一席之地、為了求更高的社經地位及物質生活而抹滅情感上的需求所產生之病態。性一向被艾瑞卡的母親視為是罪大惡極的禁忌，但壓抑身體慾望的結果使得艾瑞卡有自殘刀割下體的習慣、背著母親去看色情表演、偷窺男女在野地做愛並在性慾被撩起時有拉尿的強迫症。第一章在說明本書的研究價值、摘要小說、回顧評論、和闡述為何以資本主義社會、現代人的精神官能症、自虐症為以下兩章的主題。第二章會從佛洛依德的性壓抑而造成心理疾病的心理學角度去說明艾瑞卡所受精神官能症的病徵及原因。第三章則是研究艾瑞卡的自虐、偷窺、性虐待幻想等的變態行為的起因及心理需求。最後於第四章我用佛洛依德在文明及其不滿中的觀點，來說明個人在被過度要求、否認自我慾望的過程中，精神不但無法超脫還會導致行為、心理的脫序。女性在男性資本主義社會中容易受到經濟、性別弱勢的雙重迫害，而導致極度的不快樂。艾瑞卡就是一位盲目服膺其價值觀而受害的中產階級女性之一。

Jelinek was often commended for her frequent critiques of consumerism and the subjugation of women in the patriarchal society. In her avowedly autobiographical novel The Piano Teacher, she again uses the life of a pathological piano teacher to reflect the cruelties and the subjugating powers inherent in the capitalistic and patriarchal society. By adopting a psychological approach, this thesis will show that Jelinek’s fiction is an account of a larger analysis of female masochism than it initially seems to be. The protagonist’s regular practice of self-mutilation is more than an individual pathology, but an allegory of the result of the violence and deprivation inflicted on the individual by the capitalist society.
The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter I is an introduction, including the overview of the novel and its critical backgrounds. In Chapter II, textual analyses as well as psychoanalysis will be made to explore the psychological depths of the protagonist’s compulsive behaviors and voyeurism. Erika’s relationships with men, especially with one of her musical students, Walter Klemmer, failed tragically and resulted in her final self-destruction. This chapter will study Erika’s neurotic personality and will investigate the factors which contribute to the protagonist’s neuroses and her consequent sufferings.
In Chapter III, I will focus on studying Erika’s sadomasochistic fantasies and voyeurism; not only is she made to hurt herself in her tormenting relationship with her mother, she also repeats the sadomasochistic pattern in her relationship with Kelmmer. By researching into the causes and psychodynamics of sadomasochism, Iwill discuss why her non-erotic impulses would be transformed into perverse erotic desires and behaviors. My topics for discussion include: What caused her to develop her “perverse mechanism”? What forces propel her to live out her perversions? The answers lie in the childhood traumas inflicted by her mother and the cultural conditions which lend weight and color to the individual experiences and determine their particular forms. In order to excel and become an elite of Austrian’s high culture, Erika was made to deny her drive needs until later she can only experience a libidinal deadness. Forceful repression of her natural desires lead to her pathologies. The chapter also shows the danger of conforming too completely to the capitalistic ideology and exposes the ideology’s oppressing and alienating effects.
Finally, the last chapter concludes that by presenting a cruelty revolting in its extremity, Jelinek is denouncing the Austria’s idolization of high music culture, and mourning the sacrifice of a pianist’s id under its system. Erika can be seen as the victim of society’s fetishization of petty-bourgeois values and her upbringing according to its norms. By exposing the superstructure that immobilizes her characters, Jelinek’s biting irony is directed at the capitalist superstructure and its restraining and deadening effect on the individual.

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