2. Overview
Definition
Origins
Interpretation of Dreams
Core Concepts
Experience, Consciousness, and Personality
Dreams
The Uncanny
Summary
3. What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?
Aims to discover and interpret art in terms of
psychoanalytic concepts and processes
In literature, Freudian methodology analyzes characters
in terms of their psychological reality – as real people
Significant issue relates to the conscious and the
unconscious in character and action – what are
unconscious motives?
The individual psychic drama is primary, not the socio-
cultural or historical drama
4. Definitions and Origins
Psychoanalytic criticism aims to understand characters
through the enigmatic association between the
conscious and the unconscious – in literary characters.
The basis of Freud’s psychoanalytic approach
emphasizes the unconscious and the key role it plays in a
person or character’s life (Oedipus; Hamlet; Ahab, Moby-
Dick; The Homecoming)
In the real world, such behaviors as jokes, slips of the
tongue (Freudian slip), forgetfulness suggest unconscious
wishes (in Freudian theory)
5. Core Concepts and Premises
Rationality does not motivate most human behavior
The conscious impulses over which a person attends
are limited and self-directed only to the extent that
a person or character understands them, accepts
them, and integrates them
Incest and its prohibition – nature and culture (raw
and cooked) – form inherent problems in the riddle
of the unconscious
6. Core Concepts: Psychic Process
Freud conceived of the human psyche as structured in
three levels of consciousness
Consciousness – awareness or attention to something
immediate
Preconscious – mental processes that are normal, but latent.
Most of a person’s mental processing is on this level.
Unconscious – mental processes are
submerged, scrambled, often deeply repressed; Freud
viewed the unconscious as a meaningful ―riddle‖ to be
decoded -- the unconscious can be the seat of complex
pathology. It is usually not easily accessible.
7. Experience and Consciousness
Three personality sectors filter a person’s experience
ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO.
These three elements of a personality interact and govern how a person
or character will deal with experiences, including traumas.
ID – represents the libido and pleasure principle.
EGO – represents the conscious person – organized, integrated,
and rational; the ego mediates between the id and the superego –
the extent of organization and integration determines the strength
of a character’s ego and balance (Ego Strength)
SUPEREGO – represents the conscience of a person or character –
social and cultural totem and taboo.
8. Core Concepts: Trauma
Deep inner conflict lodged in the unconscious (struggle
between id and superego) is the root of pathology,
hysteria, and madness – disintegration (Ahab in Moby-
Dick)
A character may or may not be aware of this conflict
Becoming aware of the conflict does not resolve it – as in
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
After Oedipus finally becomes aware that he has killed his
father and married his mother, he blinds himself. In Freudian
psychoanalytic terms, the burden of guilt was too
devastating.
9. Core Concepts: Sexuality
Social taboos regarding human sexual impulses are
powerful and fundamental; they often lead to conflicted
feelings, guilt, trauma, and repression (submerged
memory at the unconscious level)
The libido or human sexuality is the primary psychic
impetus underneath personality development and
behavior; its expression and conduct are socially and
culturally monitored
10. Psychoanalytic Ideas & Literature
Freud’s conception of the enigmatic unconscious forms the basis
for psychoanalytic methodology and interpretation
One interpretive technique involves dream analysis -- language
and imagery of people’s dreams
Freud views dreams as ―works of art born of a compromise
between the conscious and the unconscious‖ (―Uncanny‖ p. ix)
E.T.A. Hoffman’s short story ―The Sandman‖ exemplifies the way an
unresolved trauma (death of Nathaniel’s father) is distorted in a
dream
Freud discusses this story within the concept of ―the uncanny‖ or
something hidden, secret, and uncomfortable—repressed in the
unconscious
11. The Uncanny & Delusions & Dreams
These works are Freud’s most developed thought in
literary criticism
Believed that the psychological mechanisms operative in
―dream-work‖ also operate in the process of imaginative
writing
Believed psychoanalysis could offer an ―intelligence‖ or
visibility into the process of dreams and creative writing
―The Creative Writer and Daydreaming‖ was first
interpretation of artistry built on day-dreaming
(―Uncanny‖ 23)
12. The Uncanny
Relates to what is unsettling, frightening – what
atmosphere, tone, setting, language ―arouses dread and
horror‖
Opposite of the Sublime – what is beautiful, transcendent
Individual differences in the perception and sensitivity to
―the uncanny‖
Creative or imaginative writing of fantasy draws on
inventing an aura of the fantastic or dichotomy of the
uncanny
13. Elements of The Uncanny
Atmosphere or characters must lose a sense of poetic reality
or material reality
Character feels attracted to and repelled by the same
object or person – id vs. superego – creates ambivalence –
cognitive dissonance.
Producing uncanny feelings:
Creator needs to invent superstitious conditions with a sense of
balance to reality – then transgress or violate the reader’s ―trust‖
Uncanny or fearful feelings emerge from memories that have
been surmounted (repressed feelings are difficult to arouse)
14. ―The Birds‖
Associated with the notion of the sandman – a creature
that throws sand in children’s eyes when they won’t sleep
The eyes of children ―jump out of their heads all
bleeding‖
The sandman then takes the eyes in a sack ―to the half
moon‖ to feed his children – the ―children‖ sit in their nest
with curled beaks; these ―children‖ use their beaks to
peck out ―naughty girl’s and boy’s eyes‖
The sandman is associated with evil – a terrifying
unconscious fear
15. Dreams and Poetics
Dreams are viewed as a means of evading conscious
awareness and understanding
In the ―Interpretation of Dreams‖ Freud viewed dreams as
cryptic texts – aesthetic works of everyday life
Lionel Trilling referred to Freudian psychology as a mental
system ―that makes poetry indigenous to the soul‖ (223)
Psychoanalysis aims to describe mechanisms of dreams
and decipher them
16. Dream Analysis
In talking about dreams (or analyzing fantasy) a person
or character builds up an associative network
(language, imagery, symbolism) that ―illuminates‖ the
―dream thoughts‖ or unconscious desires – wishes.
These dream thoughts reveal the person or character’s
trauma and the way the repressed, unresolved
experience has unconsciously affected the character
Dreams elude consciousness and distort reality in four
ways:
Condensation, Displacement, Representation, Secondar
y Editing
17. Dreams: Eluding Consciousness
Condensation
Compression of dream thought or experiences into brief, cryptic
―riddles‖ or unconscious messages
Displacement
Transference of desires or wishes from one person or object to
another
One is angry with a person and slams a door – rather than
confront the person (too threatening)
Means of Representation
Entangled dream content and dream thought are combined
into a single event
18. Dreams: Accessing the Buried
Purpose of interpreting dream thought or analyzing
character’s unconscious (as in ―The Sandman‖) is to
restore realistic connections
Understand the motivations and language – revealed in
imagery, symbolism
Screen Memories – essay on the dynamics of memories;
what is recalled and what is screened off -- submerged
memories
19. Summary
Psychoanalytic criticism analyzes and interprets literary
characters as realistic persons
The central issues in psychoanalytic interpretation are the
primacy of sexuality and unconscious desires – wishes.
The ego mediates between the id (suppressed primal
drives) and the superego (socio-cultural morés)
Dreams are viewed as a means of evading conscious
awareness and understanding – they are a reservoir of
repressed conflicts or memories
20. Summary con’t
One psychoanalytic interpretive technique involves
dream analysis -- language and imagery of people’s
dreams or fantasies
Freud views dreams as ―works of art borne of a
compromise between the conscious and the
unconscious‖
Psychoanalytic theory aims to describe mechanisms of
dreams and decipher them as expressions of
unconscious conflicts and consequent action or
behavior
Editor's Notes
Unconscious drives through displacement, sublimation, projection, screen memory – all defense mechanisms
In other words, mental processes – perception, recollections, feelings are not immediately accessible, but can be accessed or transformed into awareness without difficulty or they can be inferred from their effects. A character generally does not feel a sense of exhaustion dealing with these processes nor a sense of threat or unease when these mental processes, perceptions, or feelings rise to surface awareness. Although they are not conscious, they are also not unfamiliar, or hidden. They do not evoke guilt. if a trauma has occurred and the character orperson’s feelings over the trauma remain conflicted and unresolved.
ID – represents the libido and pleasure principle. There is no consciousness or reason characterizing this aspect of a character’s drive. All unsuppressed, animalistic urges emanate from the id. It is amoral and asocial and could lead a person to destructive behavior – both self-indulgent and self-destructive. Captain Ahab of Moby-Dick is a victim of his uncontrollable id in the face of the White Whale. EGO – represents the organized, rational, and stable personality. It serves to protect the person or character as well as stabilize conflicts among other persons or characters.SUPEREGO – represents the conscience of a person or character. All cultural, societal, and educational values govern the processing of the superego. The superego serves as a counterbalance to the id. Any harmful behaviors are constrained. An overbearing superego produces unconscious guilt that can lead to a imbalance in a character. Oedipus’ guilt, Hamlet’s guilt.
In other words, mental processes – perception, recollections, feelings are not immediately accessible, but can be accessed or transformed into awareness without difficulty or they can be inferred from their effects. A character generally does not feel a sense of exhaustion dealing with these processes nor a sense of threat or unease when these mental processes, perceptions, or feelings rise to surface awareness. Although they are not conscious, they are also not unfamiliar, or hidden. They do not evoke guilt. if a trauma has occurred and the character orperson’s feelings over the trauma remain conflicted and unresolved.
In other words, mental processes – perception, recollections, feelings are not immediately accessible, but can be accessed or transformed into awareness without difficulty or they can be inferred from their effects. A character generally does not feel a sense of exhaustion dealing with these processes nor a sense of threat or unease when these mental processes, perceptions, or feelings rise to surface awareness. Although they are not conscious, they are also not unfamiliar, or hidden. They do not evoke guilt. if a trauma has occurred and the character orperson’s feelings over the trauma remain conflicted and unresolved.
