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Psychoanalytic literary criticism applies psychoanalytic theory to literature, using concepts such as the conscious and unconscious mind, id, ego, superego, and the Oedipus complex to gain a deeper understanding of a work. Childhood experiences and dream analysis are also used to uncover latent content.
Psychoanalytic literary criticism is a way of analyzing and interpreting literary works that is based on psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalytic theory was developed by Sigmund Freud to explain how the human mind works. In this field of literary criticism, the main concepts of psychoanalytic theory, such as the idea of an unconscious and conscious mind, the divisions of id, ego and superego, and the Oedipus complex, are applied to literature for gain a deeper understanding of that job.
The idea of a conscious mind and an unconscious mind is one of the most important tools of psychoanalytic literary criticism. Freud theorized that people have a conscious part of the mind, where thinking takes place and where they are aware of their thoughts. He also proposed the idea of an unconscious part of the mind, where there are desires and drives that people are unaware of, but which influence them and sometimes cause psychological problems.
Freud often analyzed dreams, which he believed were windows into the workings of the unconscious mind. He believed that dreams had obvious or manifest content that masked latent or unconscious desires and drives. He used symbolism and dream analysis to discover the latent content of the dream.
One technique of psychoanalytic literary criticism is to treat a work of literature as if it were a dream. The goal of this technique is to understand symbols and unconscious desires through the interpretation of the most obvious content. This type of literary criticism uses symbolism and other forms of analysis to arrive at the latent content of a literary work.
Childhood experiences are extremely influential and, to a large extent, shape a person’s psyche, according to Freud. In his theory of the Oedipus complex, a child begins life being very attached to the mother figure. The child begins to be jealous of the attention the mother gives to the father, which leads to repressed anger towards the father and the desire to possess the mother. Psychoanalytic literary criticism can use this theory of development as a way to understand the repressed content of literature.
Freud believed that childhood experiences lead to the development of three divisions in the mind: the ego, the id, and the superego. The ego is the conscious part of the brain, the part that a person is aware of. The id is the unconscious or repressed desires that a person has, including desires caused by the Oedipus complex. The superego is the conscience, judge and jury in a person’s mind. Psychoanalytic literary criticism looks for influences from all three parts of the mind in literature.
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