Psychoanalytic Criticism Why all characters, readers, authors have issues...

Two main streams: Sigmund Freud (Freudian model): unconscious, repression, Oedipus Complex, libidinal imagery Carl Jung (Jungian model) : collective unconscious, archetypes (innocent, trickster, wise fool, teacher/prophet), hero’s journey (innocence, initiation, chaos, resolution)

Freudian Psychoanalysis The focus of this will be mainly on Freud (spoke of Jung under archetypal criticism although he primarily fall under psychoanalytic theory) It is important to first understand Freud’s theories on psychoanalysis to develop an understanding of psychoanalytic criticism in literature We will mainly be looking at the Freudian model regarding psychoanalysis (ignoring Jungian model)

Agenda The unconscious mind: – Id, ego, superego – Dreams – Sexuality – Family conflicts Brief summary on Freud vs. Jung Psychoanalysis in literature

What is the unconscious mind? “Freud’s theories are either directly or indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Freud didn’t invent the notion of the unconscious; others before him had suggested that even the supposedly “same” human mind was conscious and rational only at times, and even then at possibly only one level. But Freud went further, suggesting that the powers motivating men and women are mainly and normally unconscious.” The unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about We develop our unconscious mind at a very young age through the act of repression Repression is the expunging of the conscious mind of all our unhappy psychological events Our unhappy memories do not disappear in the unconscious mind; rather, they exist as a dynamic entity that influences our behavior

What is the unconscious mind? Think of the unconscious like an iceberg (conscious is 10% seen, but majority 90% is unseen) Underneath (what is unseen) contains our hidden, repressed desires

Id, Ego, Superego “Freud…powerfully developed an old idea: that the human mind is essentially dual in nature.” (503) Id: the irrational, unknown part of the psyche Ego: the rational, logical, conscious part Superego: projection of the ego; makes moral judgments telling us “to make sacrifices for good causes even though self-sacrifice may not be quite logical or rational”. (505) The ego and superego tell us not to do or say certain things which becomes the method of repression forcing it into our unconscious mind

Dreams We all have dreams in which repressed feelings and memories emerge disguised, and thus we are all potential candidates for dream analysis”(504) Freud says that we all have repressed wishes and fears And it is only through dreams where memories rise to the surface (in disguise)

Dreams Our defense mechanisms do not operate in the same way while we are asleep as they do when we are awake. This is why psychoanalysts are so interested in dream analysis When we are asleep, the unconscious mind is free to express itself and it does so in the form of dreams

Dreams Dream displacement: when we use a “safe” person, event, or object as a “stand-in” to represent a more threatening person, event, or object. For example, dreaming about a child almost always reveals something about our feelings toward ourselves, toward the child that is still within us and that is probably still wounded in some way.

Sexuality “Censored materials often involve infantile sexual desires…Repressed to an unconscious state, [sexual desires] emerge only in disguised forms: in dreams, in language (so- called Freudian slips), in creative activity hat may produce art (including literature), and in neurotic behaviour” Sexual behaviour is a product of our culture because our culture sets down the rules of proper sexual conduct and the definitions of normal/abnormal sexual behavior Society ’ s rules and definitions concerning sexuality form a large part of our superego. The word superego implies feeling guilty (even though some of the time we shouldn ’ t) because we are socially programmed to feel guilty when we break a social value (pre-marital sex, for example). Neurotic: excessive and irrational anxiety or obsession; a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.

Sexuality The superego is in direct opposition to the id, the psychological reservoir of our instincts and libido. The id is devoted to gratifying all our prohibited desires (sex, power, amusement, food, etc.) Because the id contains desires regulated or forbidden by social convention, the superego determines which desires the id will contain The ego plays referee between the id and the superego; it is the product of the conflict we feel between what we desire and what society tells us we cannot have.

Family Conflicts: Oedipus Complex “One of the unconscious desires most commonly repressed is the childhood wish to displace the parent of our own sex and take his/her place in the affections of the parent of the opposite sex” The Oedipus Complex: young boys between the ages of 3-6 develop a sexual attachment to their mothers. The young boy competes with his father for his mother’s attention until he passes through the castration complex, which is when he abandons his desire for his mother out of fear of castration by his father. The Electra Complex: young girls compete with their mothers for the affection of their fathers.

Family Conflicts: Oedipus Complex In working out instinctual desire to possess mother, leading to inevitable conflict with father, the child forms a personality. Yes, I know, creepy…but don’t a lot of issues come from the dynamics of family power? Don’t kids often wish they had more power or authority over their parents?

Family Conflicts: Oedipus Complex Named after Oedipus in the Greek tragic hero – killed his father and married his mother without knowing Another example: Ernest Hones (Freud’s student) suggests that Hamlet had strong feelings towards his mother which is another factor of why he wanted to get rid of his uncle, the replaced king (505)

Family Conflicts: Oedipus Complex Example from Jane Eyre (from the reading): Dianne F. Sadoff sees bond between Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre in terms of sadomasochistic relationship between fathers and daughters in 19 th century patriarchal society (512) Freud interested in father-daughter relationship - had patients where daughters had childhood “fantasies” of being beaten by their fathers Freud believed that these fantasies “originated in the struggles of the Oedipus complex and express[es] erotic love for the father” Believes that Rochester’s maiming is symbolic castration

Difference between Freud and Jung They were both interested in psychoanalytic theories But Jung believed that literature wasn’t a “disguised expression of the author’s personal, repressed wishes; rather it is a manifestation of desires once held by the whole human rice but now repressed because of the advent of civilization [called the collective unconscious]” (505)

What is psychoanalytic criticism? “Like dreams, literary works are fictions, inventions of the mind that, although based on reality, are by definition not literally true. Like a literary work, a dream may have some truth to tell, but, like a literary work, it may need to be interpreted before that truth can be grasped. We can live vicariously through romantic fictions, much as we can through daydreams…” (502) This kind of literary criticism sees a text like a dream-everything represents something deeper, below the surface Psychoanalytic criticism argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret/repressed unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a manifestation of the author’s own neuroses (anxieties, obsessions, etc.)

What is psychoanalytic criticism? An author may manifest their issue through the types of characters or plot lines they write The meaning in a piece of literature can come from finding those hidden meanings

What is psychoanalytic criticism? Can be about the author’s “hidden life”. This analysis of the text could be an expression of the secret, repressed life of its author, explaining the textual features as symbolic of psychological struggles in the writer’s life. Can be about the “secret life” of the characters, applying psychoanalytical theory to explain their hidden motives or psychological makeup (“armchair psychology”) This can overlap Reader Response Criticism in that you can look at ways in which specific readers reveal their own obsessions, neuroses, etc. as they read a particular text. Why do you like the books you do? What does that say about YOUR repressed issues?

What is psychoanalytic criticism? Remember formalism? Formalism says that a piece of work is not about author’s intent, but about what actually ended up on the page and what meanings are present in the work regardless of intent. Despite the importance of the author’s role here, psychoanalytic criticism does not concern itself with "what the author intended," but instead what the author never intended (that is, what was repressed or in the author’s subconscious).

Why psychoanalysis? Importance of Psychoanalysis: If psychoanalysis can help us better understand human behavior, then it must certainly be able to help us understand literary texts, which are about human behavior Psychoanalytical Criticism shows how human behavior is relevant to our experience of literature

How to Read a Text using Psychoanalysis The job of the psychoanalytical critic is to see which concepts are operating in the text that will yield a meaningful psychoanalytic interpretation. For example: You might focus on the work’s representation of oedipal dynamic of family dynamics in general You might focus on what work tells us about human beings’ psychological relationship to death or sexuality You might focus on how the narrator’s unconscious problems keep appearing over the course of the story.

How to Read a Text using Psychoanalysis A great way to practice psychoanalytical criticism is to analyze the behavior of the characters in the text. Often the characters’ behavior represents the psychological experience of the author or of human beings in general. A good example would be a psychoanalytical reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Questions a Freudian might ask when analyzing a text What unconscious motives are operating in the main characters? What is being repressed? Remember that the unconscious mind consists of repressed wounds, fears, unresolved conflicts, and guilty desires Is it possible to relate a character ’ s patterns of adult behavior to early experiences in the family (as represented in the story)? What do these behavior patterns and family dynamics reveal? What was the relationship like between the author and his family?

Questions a Freudian might ask when analyzing a text How successful did the author feel in romantic relationships? What kind of person would identify with this book? What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader? (OR, “Who’s messed up enough to like this book?”) How can characters’ behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of regression, projection, fear of or fascination with death or sexuality?

Questions a Freudian might ask when analyzing a text In what ways can we view a literary work as a dream? How might recurrent or striking dream symbols reveal the ways in which the narrator/author is projecting his unconscious desires, fears, wounds, or unresolved conflicts onto other characters or the events portrayed? Look for symbols relevant to death and sexuality (yonic and phallic symbols)

look for libidinal imagery: – yonic (sexual symbolism for a female) – phallic (sexual symbolism for a male)

Let’s practice… What ’ s with the recurrent images of an apple? What does the apple symbolize? Why is a girl holding the apple? What does this say about the author ’ s repressed desires? What about the apple is sexual? Does the image of an apple have any religious meaning?

Discussion Questions for you… –What type(s) of literature do you like, and what might that say about your subconscious? –What stage of the hero’s journey do you think you’re in currently?