The document discusses psychology as a field focused on understanding the human mind and behavior through various theories and contributions, particularly by Freud and others. It highlights the impact of psychological concepts on literature and criticism, addressing figures such as Adler and Jung, and their influence on literary naturalism and character analysis. Additionally, it critiques the limitations of the psychological approach in artistic interpretation, emphasizing oversimplification and the distinction between art and dreams.

1. Psychological Criticism
PREPARED BY
DR. T. LILLY GOLDA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
A.P.C. MAHALAXMI COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, THOOTHUKUDI

2. What is Psychology?
Psychology is a field of study that focuses
on human mind, behaviour, and
experiences. It is both an academic
discipline and applied science which
pursues to interpret a group or individual
by means of founding principles through
case study and research.

3. Impact of Freud
Freud’s
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex
 The Interpretation of Dreams
A. A. Brill’s translations in 1910 & 1912
Dr. Ernest Jones’ Oedipus Complex as an
Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery

4. Freudian theory
Literary Naturalism
Man is a victim of environment
Man is sick rather than villainous
French Symbolists & Experimentalists –
method of the unconscious

5. Impact of Psychology upon literature
Adler’s concept of inferiority complex
Jung’s theory of collective unconscious
Those influenced by Freud
Lawrence, Mann, Sherwood Anderson
May Sinclair, Joyce, Katherine Mansfield,
Graham Green, Dylan Thomas

6. Psychology vs Puritanism & Victorianism
 Randolph Bourne’s The Puritan’s Will to Power
 He attempts to destroy the retention of traditional
values.
 He attacks the puritanical spirit which celebrates
denial and attacks freedom and expressiveness of the
full person.

7. Psychology in literary criticism
Those who popularized the psychological
approach:
 Concord Aiken’s Skepticisms: Notes on
Contemporary Poetry
 Max Eastman
 Floyd Dell
 Robert Graves’ use of W. H. River’s theory of the
conflict of unconscious personalities
 Herbert Read’s Reason and Romanticism

8. Application of psychological knowledge to art
Three kinds of illumination
Aesthetic experience
Literary biography
Explaining fictitious characters

9. Application of psychological knowledge to art
Aesthetic experience
 I. A. Richards’ Principles of Literary Criticism
Kenneth Burke’s Antony in Behalf of the Play

10. Application of psychological knowledge to art
Literary biography
Study of the lives of authors as a means of
understanding their art
Edmund Wilson’s The Wound and the Bow

11. Application of psychological knowledge to art
Explaining fictitious characters
F. L. Lucas Literature and Psychology
Ernest Jones’ Study of Hamlet
Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw

12. Limitations of the Psychological Approach
Over simplification
Van Wyck Brook’s The Ordeal of Mark
Twain 1920
Lewisohn’s Expression in America 1934
Art is different from dream; art can be
controlled, dream cannot be
Lionel Trilling, Kenneth Burke