2. As it is a form of literary criticism, it uses
Techniques of Psychoanalysis in the interpretation and analysis of
literature.
A Psychoanalytic critic exposes the “Latent Content” of “Manifest
Content” of a work.
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3. Importance of Psychoanalytical Criticism
Decodes symbols, images, metaphors
Asserts that nonsense is meaningful
Distortion is inescapable and creative
Analyzes and evaluates the characters
Enables the readers to penetrate deep into human psychology
Expression of both the reader and the writer’s inner conflicts
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4. Within each piece of literature, there exist clues to guide the reader to a
deeper understanding of the literary work, of the author of the work, and
even of the inner workings of the individual reader. Using
psychoanalytical theory to analyze a work of literature allows the reader
to consider how the writing represents the author’s repressed desires,
fears, and impulses.
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5. Psychoanalytical analysis also considers how the literature presents the
author’s isolation from events or even the denial of the existence of
certain events and circumstances through identification of the inner
workings of the mind. Modern psychoanalytic theory, based largely on
the work of Dr. Sigmund Freud, provides the literary critic with a guide to
discovering, revealing, and examining the truths that are hidden in
literary works.
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6. After 1950, psychoanalytic critics began to emphasize the ways in which
authors create works that appeal to readers’ repressed wishes and
fantasies. In addition to appealing to and revealing the unconscious
desires of a work’s anticipated audience, authors reveal their own
unconscious desires in their writing. The key components of
psychoanalytical theory are the struggle among Freud’s Id, Ego, and
Superego; Freud’s understanding of the unconscious; and literature as a
representation of the inner workings of the mind.
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7. Psychoanalytical theory works from this belief and seeks images in a text that
will provide an illustration of the author’s unconscious life. Literary texts, like
dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author.
Even when an author is not writing autobiographically, the speech and
behavior of the author’s characters and the descriptions of settings and
events are usually imbued with some of the author’s personality, desires, and
fear.
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9. Difference between Psychological Criticism
and Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychological Criticism
Psychological criticism is
a kind of Biographical
criticism.
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Psychoanalytical criticism
is a theoretical frame
work for the analysis of
literature.
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10. Theorists/Critics of Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud: (1856-1939) Austrian neurologist and founder
of psychoanalysis
Carl Gustav Jung: (1875-1961) Swiss psychiatrist
Jacques Lucan: (1901-1981) French psychoanalyst & psychiatrist
Harold Bloom: (born 1930) American literary critic
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11. Psychoanalytic theory was the first of many psychodynamic theories
to follow many within a direct line from Freudian thinking.
Freud ‘discovered’ the unconscious which is the basis for all
psychodynamic theories.
Psychodynamic theories hold that human behavior is primarily the
function of reactions to “internal” (thus mostly unconscious) stimuli
instincts, urges, thoughts.
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12. Two Models of Human Psychology
Model 1 consists of:
Consciousness
Sub-Conscious
Un- conscious
Model 2 consists of:
Id
Ego
Super ego
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14. 1. UNCONSCIOUS
• Contains all the feeling, urges or instinct that are beyond our awareness
but it affect our expression, feeling, action (E.g. Slip of tongue, dreams,
wishes).
2. Sub-CONSCIOUS
• Facts stored in a part of the brain, which are not conscious but are
available for possible use in the future (E.g. A person will never think of
her home address at that moment but when her friend ask for it, she can
easily recall it).
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15. 3. CONSCIOUS
• Only level of mental life that are directly available to us. The awareness
of our own mental process (Thoughts/feeling).
STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
Consist of three parts :
1.Id
2.Ego
3.Superego
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16. ID
Resides completely at the unconscious level acts under the pleasure
Principle immediate gratification, not willing to compromise Generates all
all of the personality’s energy.
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17. Super Ego
Part of the mind that houses morals/values
The moralist and idealistic part of the personality.
Resides in subconscious.
Operates on “ideal principle”
Essentially your “conscience”
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18. conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt or
shame, reward us by feeling proud when we live up to it.
Ego ideal: ultimate standard of behavior as a “good” member of society.
The interaction of these three parts of ourselves is characterized by conflict.
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19. EGO
Resides in all levels of awareness.
Operates under “reality principle”
Attempts negotiation between Id and Superego to satisfy both
realistically
The ego has no concept of right or wrong
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20. Conflicts of Personality Components
Conflicts between the Id, Superego and Ego arise in unconscious mind
Can’t be reached in unconscious
Come out in various ways
– Slips of tongue (“Freudian slip”)
– Dreams
– Jokes
– Anxiety
– Defense Mechanisms
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21. DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Defense mechanisms operate unconsciously to protect the ego from
threats from the id and from external reality.
Denial
Censor
Repressed wishes desires slip into unconscious
FIXATION: When one's desire is tied to an object of desire connected to
an earlier phase in one's psychosexual development.
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22. OEDIPAL COMPLEX: a child's desire, that the mind keeps in the
unconscious via dynamic repression, to have sexual relations with the
parent of the opposite sex (i.e. males attracted to their mothers, and
females attracted to their fathers).
Electra complex: girl's sense of competition with her mother for the
affections of her father.
Freudian Slip of Tongue: An error in speech, memory, or physical
action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an
unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought.
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23. Conclusion
Human psyche consists of unconscious and conscious spheres, with most
of its contents lodged out of sight in the unconscious and covered over
by a relatively smaller and less dense consciousness.
Keys to the dark and inaccessible unconscious lie, psychoanalysts say, in
free association, fantasies, slips of the tongue, and especially dreams, all
of which reveal deeply buried, repressed, and self-censored wishes.
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24. Repression
Unpleasant experiences are stored deep in the subconscious mind and
cant be access by the conscious mind.
•Basic defense mechanism
DISPLACEMENT: In Freudian psychology, displacement ("shift, move") is
an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either
a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be
dangerous or unacceptable.
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25. Rationalization
Providing a reasonable explanation to make undesirable behavior appear
logical.
Example
A student who fails a test because she did not study hard enough blames
her failure on the teacher for using ‘tricky’ question.
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26. Denial
DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
•Reality is distorted to make it suit to the individual’s wishes.
Example
•An alcoholic fails to acknowledge that he is addicted to alcohol.
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27. Reaction Formation
DESCRIPTIONS EXAMPLE
•Thinking or behaving in a way that is the extreme opposite to
those that are of real intention.
Example
•A woman who loves an unobtainable man and behaves as though she hates him.
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