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Assignment  of  Psychoanalytic Criticism




Name : Makwana  Daksha  D.

Course : MA
Semester : 2
Roll no :  4
Batch  :  2017 – 2019
Enrollment no :  2069108420180034
Paper no : 7 –  Literary criticism Indian / western -2
Topic :  Psychoanalytical  Criticism
Email Id : makwanadaksha9@gmail.com
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi Dept. of  English MKBU

Introduction :

Psychoanalytic  literary  criticism is literary criticism or literary theory which in method , conception , form is influenced by  the tradition of psycho analysis begun by Sigmund Freud . Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods  of   “ reading “  employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret text . It argues that literary  texts , like dreams , express the secret unconscious  desires and anxieties of the author , that  a literary work is a manifestation of the  author’s own neuroses.

Psychoanalysis seeks evidence of unresolved emotions , guilts , the author’s own childhood  traumas , family life, sexual conflicts , such concepts within the behavior of the characters in the literary work. But Psychoanalytical material expressed ‘ disguised, encoded  though principles such as symbolism , condensation  and displacement .’ Psychoanalytic criticism is similar to new criticism is not concerning itself with “ What the author intended .” but what the author never intended  is sought . The unconscious material has been distorted by the censoring conscious mind.

Definition :
Psychoanalysis is defined in the oxford English dictionary as ‘ “ A therapeutic method , originated by Sigmund Freud , for treating mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the patient’s mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind , using techniques such as dream interpretation and free association . also: a system of psychological theory associated with  this method . “

Psychoanalytic theorists believe that human behavior is deterministic. It is governed by irrational forces , and the unconscious , as well as instinctual and biological drives .Due to this deterministic  nature , psychoanalytic theorists do not believe in free will.

Personality  Structure:
Sigmund  Freud  determined  that the personality consists of three different elements , The Id , the Ego and the Superego .
1.     
IId :The Id freely and randomly follows instinctive urges without any consciousness of  rational, moral or censorious awareness .The Id is the aspect of personality that is driven by internal and basic drives and needs .These are typically instinctual , such as hunger , thirst , and drive of sex, or libido. Id is also known as the , “ Pleasure Principle “  , in that it avoids pain and seeks pleasure . due to the instinctual quality of the Id , it is impulsive and often unaware of implications of actions .

2.    Ego :  The Ego is a medium between the Id and Superego . It is the voice of reason and rationality . The Ego governed by “ Reality Principle “ . The Ego therefore goes through the  process of selection and choose which part of the Id to express and what to discard. Ego acts as the voice of reason and controls the Id’s unbridled instinct  for  self- gratification . The Ego works to balance the Id and superego.

3.     Superego :  Superego is an extreme version of the Ego . The Superego driven by the morality Principle. It acts in connection with the morality of higher thought and action . Instead of instinctively acting like the Id , the superego  works to act in socially acceptable ways . It employs morality , Judging our sense of wrong and right.  Superego strives towards an unattainable human perfection.

Freud attributes  the developments of the superego to the parental influence that manifests itself in terms  of punishment  for what society considers to be bad behavior and reward for what society considers good behavior .

Freud ‘s concept of Human  Psyche :

The Conscious mind is the part of the mind that interacts  with  the outside world . It is the decisions we make and the actual and thinking we do. It is available to us or the awareness of our own thoughts and process.

The preconscious  mind , contents of the mind you are not currently aware of , available for possible use in the future .

The unconscious is the portion of the mind of which a person is not aware about it . Freud said that it is the unconscious that expose the true feelings , emotions and thoughts of the individual .Psychoanalytic techniques used to access and understand the unconscious  methods like hypnosis , free association and dream analysis . they are the instincts beyond our awareness but affect our expression , feeling and action .


 Dreamworks :  This Fraudian  terminology refers to a therapy in which an individual’s hidden desires can be revealed through his or her dreams .Freud believed that analyzing a person’s dreams will result  in understanding aspects of the personality as dreams are related to pathology.
 Symbolic representations  are important in deciphering the meanings of dreams .
Such symbolic representations can be in the form of “ Displacement “, where one the actual object is represented by another . “ condensation “, in that event where a number of meanings are represented by a single image in the dream . Freud revolutionized the study of dreams through his literary works , ‘ The Interpretation of Dreams( 1899 ).

Dreams allows us to explore the unconscious ; according to Freud , they are “ the royal road “ to the unconscious . Dreams are composed of latent and manifest  content . whereas  latent content is the underlying meaning of a dream that may not be remembered when a person wakes up, manifest content is the content from the dream that a person remembers upon waking and can be analyzed by a psychoanalytic psychologist . Dreams can provide access to the unconscious that is not easily accessible.

Oedipus  Complex :
 Oedipus complex was propounded by Freud himself . This controversial idea is derived from Greek  philosopher Sophocles tragedy of the youth Oedipus who kills his father in order to wed his mother and in self- punishment , blinded himself . Freud believes that all children fall in love with one parent and feel hatred for the other .

He described these stages as the “ Phallic stages “ of a child ‘s development . “ Freud holds that the first choice of mankind for any object is an incestuous one directed at mothers and sisters . As the child knows the danger of acting out these impulses , he /she represses this feeling which in turn leads to anxiety . This means that the child  can shift or transfer the object of desire but not get rid of it .

Electra Complex :
  Carl  Gustav Jung , another leading psychoanalyst  introduced the “ Electra  Complex “ for girls . The girls first object of love , like the boy is her mother , for she is the primary source of food , security and affection in infancy during the phallic stage , the father becomes the object of her desire , as she identifies that both her mother and herself are castrated and powerless . The daughter’s love for the father is coupled with a feeling of envy , which Freud calls “ Penis envy “ .

Psychoanalytic  theory to literature :

Psychoanalytic theory to literature it usually means applying specific concepts and petterns originating from the work of Freud and theorists to literary texts in order to reveal hidden ideas .

Freud used Oedipus Rex and Hamlet to formulate his theory of the Oedipus complex .  Freud is often credited for comprehensively explaining the indecisiveness , mental torment and lack of will in hamlet in avenging his murdered father , this idea denotes the emotions that are retained by the unconscious mind of a boy who views his father as an enemy and wishes to sexuality possess his mother . He often acts like a jealous lover instead of a son , questioning his mother about her relationship with Claudius .

Psychoanalysis opens the nature of the subject : who it is , who is experiencing , what our relationships of meaning and identity are to the psychic and cultural forces which ground so much of our being . this understanding , particularly in terms of Lacan’s sense that subject is ex- centric to itself , is very important in contemporary understandings of reading , meaning and the relation of literature to culture .
Psycho analysis examines the articulations of our most private anxieties and meanings to culture and gives us a perspective on them as a culture .it deals with the relations of ‘ body ‘ meanings and drives to symbolic , or culture , meanings .

Advantages : it initiated and addressed the importance of the unconscious , sexual and aggressive drives that make up the majority of all human beings ‘s personalities . This approach also explains defense mechanisms and why every individual reacts differently to similar situations .

Limits :  This theory lacks consideration of culture and its influence on personality.  Sigmund Freud  failed  to include evidence of the impact of the environment on the individual throughout  his theory .

Psychoanalysts :  there are many psychoanalysts , I mentioned only four….

Carl Jung : psychiatrist and  psychotherapist , who founded analytical psychology . Jung believed that unconscious conflicts are important in shaping  personality .  Jung developed the theory of the collective consciousness.
Jacques Lacan : French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who has been called ‘ the most controversial psycho- analyst since freud .
Alfred  Alder :  Australian medical doctor , psychotherapist and founder of the school of individual psychology . His emphasis on the importance of inferioritycomplex.
Anna freud : Child of Sigmund  Freud and Martha berneys . she may be consider the founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.

The Black  Cat :  This story portrays three main psychological aspects of human mind that include irrationality , perversity and guilt . Psychologists describes impulses as a radical imbalance of behavior and original  sinof  the theologians . This story expresses ‘ the spirit of perverseness ‘ through his main character.

Sons and Lovers : It can considered a  psychological novel in terms of its close descriptions of the relationships within it and their effect on the personalities portrayed. Psychology of characters , typical problems  and externalizes the subtle psychological framework of the characters.
Conclusion :
 Psychoanalytic criticism deals with the work of literature as an expression of the personality, state of mind , feelings and desires of it’s author. It is a form of applied psychoanalysis , attempts to resolve conflicts of id , ego and superego and urges and desires of conscious , unconscious mind.