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Psychoanalytic Criticism. Psychoanalytic Criticism. Psychoanalytical criticism examines: How human mental and psychological development occurs How the human mind works The root causes of psychological problems How the id, ego, and superego are represented. Psychoanalytic Criticism.
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Psychoanalytic Criticism • Psychoanalytical criticism examines: • How human mental and psychological development occurs • How the human mind works • The root causes of psychological problems • How the id, ego, and superego are represented
Psychoanalytic Criticism • This information can be used to analyze literature using two different approaches: • Psychoanalysis of the author • This often requires research of the author’s life, but some academics make inferences based on the author’s writing • Psychoanalysis of the character(s)
Psychoanalytic Criticism • Psychoanalytic Criticism is an application of the specific psychological principles of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.
Key Terms • Unconscious: the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person’s consciousness except through dissociated acts or dreams. • Id • Ego • Superego
The Id, the Ego, the Superego EGO ID SUPEREGO
Lacan’s model of the psyche: • Imaginary—a preverbal/verbal stage (6-18 months of age) • Development of a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects; however, the child’s sense of self is still incomplete. • Symbolic—the stage marking a child’s entrance into language (the ability to understand and generate symbols) • Shifts the attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural norms, laws, language and power.
Lacan’s model of the psyche: • Real—an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. • Both Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary order when a child is completely fulfilled—without need or lack • or if the real order represents our “perennial lack” (because we cannot return to the state of wholeness that existed before language).
Lacan’s model applied to Hamlet • Act 1.2 66-160 • Can you identify any repressed urges that Hamlet may be dealing with at this moment? • What might Hamlet’s id be telling him and how do you know this? • What does Hamlet’s superego tell him and how do you know this? • What conflict might these messages create? • Why do you think Gertrude remarried so quickly?
Psychoanalytical Critical Questions For psychoanalytical criticism that focuses on the author: • To what extent does the text reveal the author’s repressed desires? • What conflicts exist among the author’s id, ego, and superego? • Does the text indicate any problems in the author’s psychosexual maturation process (e.g. Oedipus Complex, oral fixation)?
Psychoanalytical Critical Questions For psychoanalytical criticism that focuses on the character(s): • In what way does the text reflect the psychosexual development of the character? • Does the character demonstrate any neuroses or psychoses? • Is the character’s behavior indicative of or influenced by repressed desires or conflicts among the id, ego, and superego?
