Psychoanalytic

Etymology and Meanings of “Psychoanalytic” Literary Theory

The term psychoanalytic comprises two words. Greek word psyche means soul or spirit and German analyse means analysis. Sigmund Freud, a great German psychiatrist used the term psychische analyse in 1894. Since then, it has become psychoanalysis. Now it is used for a theoretical perspective as psychanalytic theory or psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic literary theory in literature. Therefore, in literary theory psychoanalytic literary theory means a theory that involves elements of psychoanalysis present in the discourse or literary texts.

Definition of “Psychoanalytic” Literary Theory

Psychoanalytic literary theory could be defined as a type of critique or criticism involving the application of methods, concepts, or forms of psychoanalytic used by the practitioners of this concept and Sigmund Freud to interpret a text. Or in other words, it uses the psychoanalytic approach to show this side of the perspective in literary texts.

Origin of “Psychoanalytic” Literary Theory

Psychoanalytical, or psychoanalytic literary theory mainly occurs in the interpretations of Sigmund Freud. He has written about different concepts of psychoanalytic in his book, The Interpretation of Dreams. He argues that the motives of human beings have different drivers such as fears, desires, requirements, and conflicts. Therefore, such events occurring in one‘s childhood stay in their unconscious. Moreover, different such motives occur during human beings’ relationships with their near and dear ones, or the people living around them. Therefore, the concepts of ego, superego, and id occur recurrently in this type of critique as they relate to the human soul, unconscious, and consciousness.

Principles of Psychoanalytic Literary Theory

1. As literary texts demonstrate human behavior governed by different motives, the main source of these motives is unconscious. It explains not only human thoughts but also behavior.
2. The idea of unconsciousness is very problematic as it bears imprints of philosophy, society, theology, and all other such conceptual frameworks in which a human being lives. This entails self-knowledge, belief system, moral framework, and intentionality.
3. Literary texts show an understanding of self as well as others in one’s self that is shaped by moral and political decisions.
4. Human thoughts and actions are determined by these motives which are different in every case.
5. A literary text exhibits the conscious, unconscious, id, ego, and superego of the author as well as his characters.
6. The artistic construction, and insertion of different thematic strands and motifs occur in the literary works due to the author’s psychological situation.
7. Literary works represent human mimetic or cathartic situations through metaphorical language.
8. Literary works show juxtaposition as well as a symbolic representation of different ideas that the authors want to present.
9. Some literary works also present dreamlike, obsessive situations of characters.
10. Some prominent thematic strands include the Oedipus Complex, Electra Complex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), general anxiety, repression, suicidal thoughts or fancies, or any other such ideas or notions related to the psychology of the characters or the authors.

Criticism Against Psychoanalytic Literary Theory

1. A human being is not just a psychological being comprising only ego, superego, or id. There are various other social drivers of motives.
2. There is too much stress upon the human soul and unconscious as well as childhood.
3. A literary text has several thematic strands other than these psychological issues.
4. There are various other differences such as cultural, social, financial, and spiritual besides psychological and these differences get mixed up in the discourse, making a text. Therefore, a text does not show just psychological issues.

Examples of Psychoanalytic Literary Theory

Example # 1

From Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, translated by David Grene

Give me a sword, I say,
to find this wife no wife, this mother’s womb,
this field of double sowing whence I sprang
and where I sowed my children! As he raved
some god showed him the way—none of us there.
Bellowing terribly and led by some
invisible guide he rushed on the two doors,—
wrenching the hollow bolts out of their sockets,
he charged inside. There, there, we saw his wife
hanging, the twisted rope around her neck.

These lines from Oedipus Rex spoken by Oedipus himself show his attitude toward his mother and wife or mother-wife, Jocasta. There are hints that could lead to psychoanalytic interpretation. Otherwise, there is no Oedipus Complex as such given in the same works in Oedipus Rex.

Example # 2

From Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month
Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!

Hamlet speaks these lines in the play, Hamlet. He is generalizing the single action of his mother to state that all women are frail creatures. This attitude of Hamlet toward his mother has some hints that have led some critics to conclude that Hamlet has also an Oedipus Complex or has some elements of this psychoanalytic concept.

Example # 3

From The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

What do you have to eat?” the boy asked. “A pot of yellow rice with fish. Do you want some?” “No. I will eat at home. Do you want me to make the fire?” “No. I will make it later on. Or I may eat the rice cold.” “May I take the cast net?” “Of course.” There was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had sold it. But they went through this fiction every
day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.

In these lines, Santiago is conversing with Manolin, the young boy, his disciple, and who helps him during his hour of need. The conversation shows that the old man is seeing in Manolin his own reflection which has led the critics to interpret it from ego, superego, and id points of view.

Example # 4

From Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

‘Gregor,’ a voice called (it was his mother!) ‘it’s quarter to seven. Don’t you want to be on your way?’ The soft voice! Gregor was startled when he heard his voice answering. It was clearly and unmistakably his earlier voice, but in it was intermingled, as if from below, an irrepressibly painful squeaking which left the words positively distinct only in the first moment and distorted them in the reverberation, so that one didn’t know if one had heard correctly. Gregor wanted to answer in detail and explain everything, but in these circumstances he confined himself to saying, ‘Yes, yes, thank you mother. I’m getting up right away.’

These lines from Kafka’s novel, Metamorphosis, show elements of the psychoanalytic critical approach or theory. Gregor has just got up from his dream and has turned into a vermin which seems improbable. In fact, it could be a dream and the whole story could be a dream.

Example # 5

From Paradise Lost by John Milton

What time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heavín, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equalíd the most High.

This arrogance of Satan given in these lines shows how John Milton considers Satan. This is his own point of view which shows how much he has fought against Satan or his inner self to purify it. This has led critics to find more points of psychoanalytical theory in the speech of Satan.

Example # 6

September Twelfth, 2001” by X. J. Kennedy

Two caught on film who hurtle
from the eighty-second floor,
choosing between a fireball
and to jump holding hands,

aren’t us. I wake beside you,
stretch, scratch, taste the air,
the incredible joy of coffee
and the morning light.

This poem by Kennedy shows how he sees the fall of the couple from the TWC on 9/11. It has elements as he might have put himself in the shoes of that person or that he himself thinks that he could become a victim of such an incident. Therefore, the little time has had could be spent enjoying life.

Keywords in Psychoanalytic Literary Theory

Ego, Superego, Id, Unconscious, Sublimation, Repression, Oppression, Infantile Sexuality, Electra Complex, Oedipus Complex, Libido, Anal And Phallic, Freudian Slip, Dream Work, Displacement

Suggested Readings

Abrams, M.H. “Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism.” A Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. 247-253.

Biddle, Arthur W., and Toby Fulwiler. Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature. NY: Random House, 1989. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. “On Dreams.” Excerpts. Art in Theory 1900-1990. Ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood. Cambridge: Blackwell Pub., Inc., 1993. 26-34. Lynn, Steven. Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. 2nd ed. NY: Longman, 1998. Print.