Note: This theory will make use of Freudian theory. While I
recognize that Freud’s ideas do not bear much contemporary relevance, that
shouldn’t take away from the fact that many of his concepts (i.e erogenous
zones, childhood memory repression, catharsis) are nonetheless employed by Hima
in the series. The purpose of this post is to give some insight into the
psychologies of the characters.

Comic Diary 3…an old strip
that’s very easily forgotten despite how crucial it is in allowing us to get a
good understanding of what Italy may or may not remember from his childhood.

In Italy’s dream, he conjures a lost child that looks exactly
like Chibitalia. When encountered by an unknown man, the child asks to be taken
to a person with a face exactly like them.

The pair go up to Italy. What the unknown man says
next is crucial.

 “I have a lost child here.”

The scene then takes a disturbing turn for the worse as the
child eerily repeats “Please acknowledge me” over and over again. Even more important
is that Italy refuses to acknowledge the child.

Freud had a profound interest in dreams, as they act as a
pathway in gaining access into the unconscious mind of the patient. Your
unconscious mind is where your deepest desires, worries, and insecurities lurk;
you’re not aware of them. If a memory is traumatic enough, especially in
childhood, then they too can be pushed into your unconscious mind so that
you’re unaware of/ unable to remember them.

In the context of dreams,
this is where your unconscious has the free reign to express itself. What you
experience in your dreams has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. It’s the
symbolic meaning of dreams that psychologists look at. Basically, your
unconscious paints the dream in a way that something irrelevant – such as an
ordinary everyday object – could represent a repressed conflict, vulnerability,
or unpleasant trauma that is plaguing your mind.

Manifest Content is the
literal element of the dream. It’s what you see and experience. For example, in
this case, it would be Italy encountering a child that looks just like him and
reacting fearfully towards it.

The Latent Content is the
symbolic element; the underlying meaning. It’s the unconscious aspect of the dream that is masked by
the seemingly normal manifest content. Because these aspects are a representation
of unconscious conflicts, when brought to the conscious level they can cause us
to experience discomfort.

What I want to focus on is the latent content of Italy’s dream.
The lost child could be symbolic of ltaly’s lost childhood. Likewise, it can
also act as a lost childhood memory that Italy has repressed and refuses to
acknowledge.

The trauma of losing Holy
Rome could have motivated Italy to actively forget about that part of his
childhood. It would follow, then, that Italy’s childhood self appearing in the
dream is the presence of an unconscious conflict and repressed memory, thus
causing him to respond fearfully.

On the same note, it’s not
impossible for the nations to have limited memories, let alone forget bad
experiences. Russia can surely testify to that.

That said, while Italy may have repressed some of his childhood
memories, we know from Buon San Valentino that he hasn’t repressed all of them
as he at least admits that his first love was a boy.

Perhaps this vagueness of
statement means that Italy’s memory about Holy Rome is muddled… that he knows
just enough, and yet, not enough to cause
him to remember and relive the pain of losing his first love.