Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis Chapter

            Psychoanalysis is a theory developed by the psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud was born in Austria. The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes psychoanalysis as “a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders 'by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind” (as quoted in Barry, 70). This literary theory obviously draws from the field of psychology. It is very important to remember that nowadays psychoanalysis is largely discredited within the field of psychology. Many critique Freud’s psychoanalysis as being irregular or inconsistent, sexist (in that he really only gave attention to men; women were usually either discussed in compliment to men or the gained Freud’s attention if they were suffering from hysteria), and in general, disproven in many ways. Therefore, many current psychologists do not wholeheartedly subscribe or agree to all or many of Freud’s ideas.

            This begs the question, you may think, why is it that literary critics still use this theory to analyze literature? The reasons are twofold. First of all, psychoanalysis does contain some truths of human behavior. The entire theory or all of Freud’s concepts are not bogus or false. In short, there are enough truths, such as the ideas of repression, our conscious and unconscious, as well as our egos that are still recognized and used in psychology and in common discourse today. Therefore, some aspects of psychoanalysis hold credibility, even if all do not, and thus, it is still used in literary analysis. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, one keyreason that psychoanalysis is still used in literature is: Literary critics are not only interested in one (capital ‘T’) truth. Perhaps like philosophers, many of us do not believe in only one truth. Rather, we are interested in perspectives and techniques to help gain new points of view. Therefore, it is important to recognize that literature is not a math or a science, or even similar to other fields like grammar or psychology, where maybe only one correct answer exists, or these fields are most interested in proven facts. On the contrary, in literary study, we seek to learn as much about human experience and the abstract as possible. We are unable, or significantly limited if attempting, to find only one correct answer. Using different theories or different lenses to view literature helps us to see newer angles of looking at the same exact text.

            Freud’s psychoanalytic theory contains several parts. One of the most important parts of his theory was the emphasis he placed on the unconscious. Freud believed that there’s a great part of us that is unconscious, or in other words, we cannot access it and we are unaware of it. However, just because we may not be aware of it does not mean that the unconscious ceases to exist. On the contrary, Freud believed that everyone’s unconsciousness is a large and defining part of humans, what makes us ‘tick’ (or operate), our fears, desires, motives, etc. Hence, Freud believed that the way to unlock some secrets to his patients, and to help those who were suffering from mental conditions, was to uncover or gain access to the unconscious.

            The very name “unconscious” though indicates that we are unaware of it. This is why therapy was needed. Freud would have his patients lay down on the couch, a practice that is still used by psychologists and psychiatrists today. Then the patient would freely talk. Perhaps Freud would ask some questions, but this practice of freely talking was called free association. In not filtering what the patients were saying, or stopping or hesitating, they were drawing from their unconscious.

            Another method used by Freud was dream analysis or dream work. Freud believed that dreams were closely linked to our unconscious. The reason for this is because most of us do not choose the dreams we have. Rather we just dream. Rarely do people experience lucid dreams, or dreams that the dreamer can control. Therefore, dreams are an integral part of tapping into and understanding our unconsciousness, and therefore, our true being. Consequently, Freud would often times encourage patients to pay attention to their dreams, to write them down, and to share them with their psychoanalyst. That way, the psychoanalyst could help decipher or tell what the dream meant (because Freud believed that our dreams are the ways in which our unconscious communicates with us). And remember: Freud believed that accessing and uncovering the unconscious was the key; therefore, it’s a fundamental part of psychoanalysis. Two other important terms related to dream work include: displacement, whereby one person or event is represented by another, but the two are in some way linked or associated with each other. Another example is perhaps two different things are associated in a dream because of a symbolic substitution. Another term coined by Freud iscondensation, whereby a number of people, events, or meanings are combined and represented by a single image in the dream. Therefore, dream analysis can become quite complicated and therefore psychoanalysts believed their services or expertise was needed to uncover the true meaning of the dreams.

            Another instrumental part of Psychoanalysis is in recognizing our individual psyches, or the make-up of our psychology. As humans we possess three different parts of our being: the id, the ego, and the superego. Each one of these parts of us remains in conflict, as each one has a different agenda or a different drive. Our id represents the part of us enjoys pleasure, that likes to feel good. We have our basic sexual urges, our desire for sexual pleasures, desires to procreate or reproduce. We also have a basic desire to stay alive, avoid death or pain, physical or emotional. The id strives for pleasure and to avoid pain. It operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920), which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. The id is also impulsive, unconscious and not seen. The id does not know consequences and therefore can be chaotic.

On the other hand, the ego is closely associated with the reality principle. We humans we cannot always feel good, get pleasure, and avoid pain. Therefore, our ego has a more realistic idea of how we, as humans, can gain pleasure. Freud made the analogy of the id being the horse while the ego is the rider. Often the ego is weak relative to the head-strong id and the best the ego can do is stay on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were its own.  The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id” (“Simple Psychology Today”).

Lastly, the super-ego is the part of our psyche that incorporates the values and morals of society which are learnt from one's parents and others. The super-ego consists of our ideal and our conscience. Ideas of what’s right or wrong, taught to us by parents, culture, religion, all make up the super ego. When we feel guilt, it is a result of our super ego (“Simple Psychology Today”).

*These three parts of our psyche, the id, the ego, and the super ego, are usually in a constant state of conflict with each other, as they have different motives and different guiding principles.

            Yet another crucial part of Freud’s theory is the childhood sexual stages, or infantile sexuality. Freud believed that it was not in only adolescence that people pass through sexual stages, but that this happens during childhood. According to Freud, the first stage is referred to as the Oral stage (related to mouth, sucking). At this stage, the infant receives pleasure, comfort, and security from sucking. The second stage is the Analstage (related to defecating, flatulence, etc). At this stage, the child receives pleasure from farting and pooping. The third and last stage is the Genital stage. At this stage, the child receives pleasure from masturbation; however, at this stage due to lack of hormones children may not yet experience sexual drive and desire the way that teenagers and adults too. However, although babies (and parents) may be unaware of these sexual stages that children pass through, progressing through these stages has a profound impact on the child’s development once he or she becomes an adult sexual being. And if normal progressions do not happen then a child can become stuck in one stage, which will be revealed in different behaviors later in life.

            Some, understandably, accuse Freud as being obsessed with sex. Perhaps this is true. However, he recognized that sexual drive is something that dictates a lot of what human beings, as we are sexual beings. He coined the term libido, which is also still used in common discourse. Libido means our sexual drive, or the energy associated with our sexual desires (Barry, 70). Some of us have higher or lower libidos.

            Likewise, a key aspect of psychoanalysis is in understanding the Oedipus complex. Oedipus was a Greek mythology character, known for killing his father and marrying his mother. Essentially, Freud believed that all male boys have a desire for the same thing: patricide (killing the father) in order to gain the mother’s love and attention. He contended that baby boys see their father as a threat. Fathers, baby boys have noticed, take the mommy away. Understandably, this may sound quite bizarre. More recent psychoanalytic critics have proposed that Freud’s theory was misunderstood. Some more recent psychoanalysts have contended that perhaps Freud did not mean literally that infant boys have sexual fantasies about their mothers. However, to a baby child, a mother represents love and security, food and feeling good. If fathers (as the closest other person to the mother) pose a threat to diverge the mother’s attention away from the infant, then the baby sees the father as a threat.

            Freud is also known for his beliefs in castration complex. Castration means removal of the penis. Therefore, he believed that little boys have a fear that their penis will be cut off or removed. In seeing the father as a threat or competition for the mother, the son sees his father as the one who may be responsible for castrating. Freud believed that this is another factor that influences males. However, others have since argued the castration complex is not literal but metaphorical. Therefore, the fear of losing the penis is more about losing the power that society attributes to (people who have) a penis.

            Another Freudian term is penis envy. According to Freud, females suffer from penis envy, so the girls envy the boys because they do not have a penis. Some women find this bizarre and argue against this idea. More recent psychoanalytic critics have contended that it is not the penis per se that the women envy, but it is the phallus. The phallus is the connotative (not denotative or literal) penis, or it can also mean the symbol of power. (This too may sound strange, but think about it. If women suffer discrimination because they are women, this means that they lack power simply because they do not have a phallus. Therefore, they have phallus envy. Not that they literally want a penis, but they want the power, prestige, and respect that comes with the penis.)

Obviously some feminist critics take issue with some of Freud’s male-centered ideas, including this one. Some feminist psychoanalysts have argued that perhaps women have penis envy. However, men experience their own kind of envy, known as womb envy. Women do hold something that men cannot possess: bringing life into this world. That is a powerful and much needed part of maintaining life and creating future generations. Therefore, some argue that both genders experience a kind of envy.

            Freud believed that childhood really molded a person into who she or he would become. Therefore, Freud often times questioned his patients about their childhood. He believed that this was a key to uncovering past trauma or repressed memory. Again, remember: Freud believed that our unconscious is a large determining part of who we are; consequently, we need ways to access our unconscious. One way is through dream analysis; another through free association; another through discussing childhood and past events.

            Freud is also well known for his emphasis onrepression. Freud believed that because our id, ego, and super-ego exist in conflict with one another, we sometimes repress or push down or aside certain motives or truths about ourselves. For example, perhaps a woman was sexually abused as a young girl. She would develop a phobia, or a trauma from being touched in any way by a man. However, her repression (or pushing down) of these terrible memories becomes so much that it actually becomes a part of her unconscious. Therefore, she would need to undergo psychoanalysis therapy in order to help her uncover the underlying reasons why she has this trauma. Another example is perhaps that of homosexuals. An example of this is as follows: perhaps a male experiences sexual fantasies about another man. However, his society tells him that his desires are not normal. Therefore, he tries to push them down, or to repress them. Maybe he pushed them so far down, he is no longer conscious of them. But they appear or they come out in other ways. The psychoanalyst would help this patient uncover this truth.

            Similarly with repression, Freud is known for understanding how humans have a tendency to denial and toward defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are strategies or methods for protecting ourselves against pain. Remember that our id wants us to only feel good. However, our super ego may make us feel guilty for always wanting pleasure. In dealing with this conflict as well as with the inevitable pain in life, we sometimes choose denial, or failure to admit that something exists as a way to avoid pain and admitting this to ourselves. Sometimes these defense mechanisms are unconscious.

            One of the common ways that Americans know of Freud is through the expression and common idiom called a ‘Freudian slip’. This slip refers to something that was said, written, or done accidentally. In other words, the individual did not mean to do this. However, according to Freud, these moments are actually true glimpses of unconsciousness or unconscious desires. Therefore, what was supposedly on accident has a level of truth contained in it. For example, if I meant to say that,“that girl was ‘amusing’” but I accidentally said, “That girl is‘arousing’,” and I didn’t know why or where that came from, because I hadn’t been thinking that, then this would be an example of a Freudian slip, because perhaps there is hidden truth in my supposed accidental statement. Perhaps I have secret or repressed homosexual feelings or desires.

            Please note: nowadays many psychologists and psychiatrists do not believe that homosexuality is a result of childhood trauma the way that psychoanalysts did. On the contrary, in the west homosexuality is no longer listed as a sickness or a condition, in Psychology books, as it used to be. This is because nowadays many do not believe that homosexuality is a choice made by the individuals. Rather, some believe that this is how those individuals are born, with a different genetic makeup or physiological factors. Therefore, scientifically, this idea of homosexuality is seen as antiquated or disproven.

Using Freud in Literature:

According to Barry, “Freudian interpretation is popularly thought to be a matter of attributing sexual connotations to objects, so that towers and ladders, for instance, are seen as phallic symbols. This kind of thing had become a jokeeven in Freud's own lifetime, and we should remember that he once said, 'Sometimes a cigar is just acigar'. (Freud was a heavy cigar smoker, mind you, so he had a vested interest in saying that.)” (71).

            Therefore, many Freudian critics will look for phallic or vaginal or womb-like symbolism within a work of literature. Perhaps because this symbolism points to the unconscious or repressed desires. Remember that psychoanalysts seek to uncover hidden meanings in real life therapy, so this practice is also used for literary analysis.

The following quote articulates nicely how psychoanalysis tries to uncover the “covert,” or that which is hidden, in literary texts. According to Hans Bertren, “Psychoanalytic criticism focuses on such ‘cracks’ in the text’s façade and seeks to bring to light the unconscious desires ofeither the author, or the characters that the text presents. It doesnot ignore what the text ostensibly would seem to be about, butits real interest is in the hidden agenda of the language that thetext employs” (160). The reasons for this are twofold. The first reason is because literary works so often represent characters, which in representing human beings have their own psychology, or a conscious and an unconscious part. The second reason is because some psychoanalytic critics believe that some literature has their own conscious and unconscious parts, almost as though the works themselves have a being. However, another way to think about this is that narrators or speakers, the ones who tell the story, also have their own psychological makeup.

Remember from earlier, psychoanalysis emphasizes the role of the unconscious in determining our motives and being. Therefore, if used to analyze literature, it is necessary to remember that there may be aspects of the unconsciousness that are closed off from readers. Therefore, readers who use psychoanalysis sometimes see it as their job to uncover those hidden elements, to better understand the whole.

According to Barry, “Freudian interpretation, then, has always been of considerable interest to literary critics. The basic reason, again, is that the unconscious, like the poem, or novel, or play, cannot speak directly and explicitly but does so through images, symbols, emblems, and metaphors. Literature, too, is not involved with making direct explicit statements about life, but with showing and expressing experience through imagery,symbolism, metaphor and so on” (73).

What Freudian psychoanalytic critics do?

1.      They give central importance, in literary interpretation, to differentiating between the conscious and the unconscious mind. They look to uncover a literary work's covert content (or its hidden or implied parts) and they believe that the hidden parts are what the work is 'really' about. However, readers may become distracted or only look at the superficial reading of the overt, what a work appears to be about. Therefore, psychoanalytic critics aim to analyze and to disentangle the two aspects, the covert and the overt.

2.      They pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, whether these be (a) those of the author, or (b) those of the characters depicted in the work.

3.       They analyze the ways that a literary work shows classic psychoanalytic symptoms, conditions, or phases, such as the oral, anal, and phallic stages of emotional and sexual development in infants.

4.      They apply psychoanalytic concepts to literary history in general, for example, Harold Bloom's book The Anxiety of Influence (1973). In this book, Bloom sees the struggle for identity by each generation of poets, under the 'threat' of the greatness of its predecessors, as a symbolic enactment of the Oedipus complex.

5.      They identify a 'psychic' context for the literary work, at the expense of social or historical context. The inner conflicts between generations or siblings, or competing desires within the same individual,is more important to a psychoanalyst than other types of conflict, like between social classes, for instance.

Jaques Lacan:

Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) was a French psychoanalyst whose work has had an extraordinary influence on many aspects of recent literary theory. In the 1930s he worked on paranoia, publishing his thesis on his patient Aimee. His famous theory of the 'mirror stage' was first presented at a conference in 1936.Lacan’s mirror stage represents a stage when a child first notices that he/she exists in a mirror. At around six months of age (to as late as eighteen months) a child will reach this stage and will eventually see him/herself as the same, and yet different, fromthat which is seen in the mirror. Before that stage, a child may not be able to recognize him/herself as the same being reflected back through the mirror.

This may seem insignificant but for Lacan the mirror stage indicates an ability to understand oneself as separate or different from the body (Barry). Or in other words, this stage is when an individual recognizes the difference between their ego and their body, and the space in between. Later though Lacan would revise this and explain that all adults have this same dilemma. At some point the infant also realizes that he/she is not the same person as the mother but exists separately from her as a separate being. This is when the ego starts to develop.

He also emphasized the importance of language and the confines (or limitations) of language. He analyzes this in a way that is similar to structuralism (Saussurean). For example, in saying “I”we refer to which part of our psyche? The body, the ego, a combination of all of them? The word “I” does not make the picture so clear, as our language is limited. As Saussure was a linguist (and in literature we know him as a structuralist) who pointed out, that the signified (the object or the thing itself—for example, a chair) is NOT the same thing as the word that means chair (chair, kursi, etc). There is space in between, a mismatch; perhaps because I think of a beach or plastic chair when I say “chair” and you mean that a wooden chair. We think of the word as one in the same as the object but they are not. Lacan took this concept and applied the same thing to our notions and use of the word “I” and what that really means.

Lacan saw more stages of sexual development than Freud. Lacan believed visual (the eyes or gaze) and the auditory can and should be understood as erogenous zones. These zones can also be linked to desire, namely sexual desire and sexual pleasure.

            Truthfully, Lacan’s writing and theory gets difficult to understand. He is known to be one of the most complex literary theorists. His writing is abstract and abstruse. For that reason, I won’t discuss him much more here, other than to say that I have other resources on Lacan’s version of psychoanalysis if you are interested in understanding more about his ideas.

What Lacanian critics do?!

1. Like Freudian critics they pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, but instead of focusing on the of the author or characters, they search out those of the text itself, uncovering contradictory aspects, which lie like a subconscious beneath the 'conscious' of the text.This is another way of defining the process of 'deconstruction’ or breaking down.

2. They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of Lacanian psychoanalytic symptoms or phases, such as the mirror-stage.

3. They treat the literary text in broader terms, towards such conceptsas lack or desire, for instance.

4. They see the literary text as an enactment or demonstration of Lacanian views about language and the unconscious. Lacanian critics draw interpretations from elusiveness of the signified, and the central importance of the unconscious.

Carl Jung

Jung is another famous psychoanalyst. He emphasized the importance of ‘archetypal’ Criticism.  In this type of criticism, the literary work is not the focus, nor the writer’s psychology. Rather, Jung looks to analyze the reader’s personal psychology, specifically focusing on a representation of the relationship between the personal and the collective unconscious, the images, myths, symbols, ‘archetypes’ of past cultures.

According to Jung, we already have locked away in our unconscious different ideas of symbols and myths that we have been taught, read, or otherwise been exposed to throughout our lives. Those get stored away and become part of our unconscious. Consequently, when we read and seek to interpret new pieces of literature, we analyze them based on this collection of symbols and archetypes. According to Jung, these also make up a part of our unconscious, and are important in how we read and interpret literature, on an unconscious level (Raman, et al, 165).

Reading other Psychoanalytic Critics and Theorists:

Timpanaro, Sebastiano, The Freudian Slip: Psychoanalysis and textual Criticism

Mitchell, Juliet and Rose, Jacqueline, eds, Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the EcoleFreudienne

Bernheimer, Charles and Kahane, Claire, In Dora's Case: Freud, Hysteria, and Feminism

Kurzweil, Edith, ed. Literature and Psychoanalysis

Wright, Elizabeth, Psychoanalytic Criticism: Theory in Practice

Ellmann, Maud, ed. Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism

Felman, Shoshana, ed. Literature and Psychoanalysis - The Question of Reading: Otherwise

Works Cited

Raman, Selden, Widdowson, Peter, and Peter Brooker.A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 5^th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson & Longman, 2005.

Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker.A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 5^th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2005.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Cultural & Literary Theory.2^nd Ed. 2002.

McLeod, Saul. “Id, Ego and Super ego.”Simple Psychology.Copyright 2008.http://www.simplypsychology.org.

 -This literature is dedicated for my friend and beloved lecturer Danielle E. living in United States, and now pursuing her PhD program. This literature is part of the introduction of literature study when I was in a college. Written by my beloved lecturer. The reason I post this because I would like people to read this literature so that they will get more knowledge and be more critical toward perspectives and any literature texts. Thank you :)-