Psychological Criticism:“So, why did s/he do that?”

Psychological literary criticism explores why authors or characters or readers

do the things they do in the particular ways that they do them.

Sigmund Freud(1856 – 1939): the father of psychoanalysis

Why did you do that? Freud believed that we act in often inexplicable ways because of hidden or inaccessible motivations and reasons residing in the unconscious mind.

By uncovering through “the talking cure” the unconscious motivation for illogical or unreasonable behaviors, Freud’s method could relieve symptoms of neurosis demonstrated in types of defense mechanisms.

Psychological criticism of literature examines how defense mechanisms may work in a character’s actions and actually reveal the deep motivations hidden in the unconscious mind.

How does Freudian psychoanalysis become literary criticism?

How does Hester protect herself from feeling the effects of being ostracized?

How do we visualize the human mind?

What is on the surface?

What is hidden?

What does the human mind “look” like?

Id: the unconscious self-centered, primal, instinctive pleasure-oriented, basic drives

Superego: learned standards of "good" and "bad", "right" and "wrong” from parents (society)

Ego: the conscious awareness, the personality that operates in the “real” world

Freud’s model of the psyche – (the mind, not the brain)

A more complex view:

◦Freud’s formation of the self – stages of development: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital◦The Oedipal Complex◦Penis Envy◦The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)◦Anxiety, discomfort, neurotic behavior = signs of

psychic disturbance.◦Behavior reveals defense mechanisms used by

individual to avoid feeling discomfort or emotional pain.

Some of Freud’s ideas:

Denial: Refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening Isolation: Consciously recognizing a disturbing event or feeling but failing to process it

and isolating it from the cognitive process. Intellectualization: Intellectually analyzing what are properly emotional issues. Repression: Subconsciously forgetting troubling memories. Suppression: Consciously trying to forget troubling memories Projection: Projecting unwanted characteristics or anxieties on to someone or

something else. A form of denial Displacement: Shifting a strong emotion towards an frightening or inaccessible target

towards a safer one. Reversal: Trying to convince yourself or others of the exact opposite of what you know

to be true but find disturbing. Reaction Formation: Active denial. Doing something which is directly in opposition to a

forbidden desire. Sublimination: Acting on socially unacceptable (usually sexual) impulses in a more

acceptable way.

Some Freudian Defense Mechanisms

Karen Horney resisted Freud’s emphasis on male-oriented theory, asserting that women’s recognition of male-female power imbalance in society created female discontent rather than envy of male genitalia.

Alfred Adler believed in a psychodynamic development of personality from interaction with the environment – more nurture than nature

Carl Jung proposed a theory of archetypal personality traits found universally in the collective unconscious.

Disagreements with Freud

Jungian analysis examines the impact of archetypal events…

birth, death, separation from and/or union with significant others, rites of passages…

and archetypal figures: the hero/heroine, wise old man/woman, the trickster, the evil one, the creator, mythic individuals & creatures…in order to integrate and actualize the personality.

Jungian analysis

Jungian Archetypes

Raven

The Devil

Mother Earth

Oedipus & the SphinxAncient male figure

Coyote

http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/defense_mechanisms.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/ss/defensemech_4.htm

http://kellijonesblog.com/2010/02/the-scarlet-letter-a/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Gigas_devil.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_primordial_gods http://www.jungny.com/carl.jung.25du.html

Bibliography