 a medical practice: the “talking cure”
 founded and developed by Austrian neurologist,
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

 psychoanalysis or “psychoanalytic theory” is also an established interpretive approach to literature and film
 a methodology for reading and interpreting texts and films
 cultural texts are – like patients’ dream narratives – full of signs which we, the reader / interpreter – like the psychoanalyst – must decipher


Freud often used literary ancestors to embellish his medical case studies
 a reading of Oedipus The King (Athenian tragedy by
Sophocles, 429 BC) underpins his theory of the
Oedipus complex
 his theory of das Unheimliche, “the uncanny” is based on his reading of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann’s work Der Sandmann, 1816

What are the basic tenets of psychoanalysis?
 events in early childhood determine our personality
(e.g. the Oedipus Complex)
 human behaviour and experience is often driven by irrational drives
 these drives remain unconscious

 repression is the force that keeps the drives unconscious
 nevertheless the drives exert influence on human experience and behaviour
 this can make people “sick”: neurotic, psychotic, anxious, depressed

 the way to resolve the disturbance of the drives is to access the unconscious under the guidance of a psychoanalyst
 psychoanalysis helps to bring the repressed into the conscious mind where it can be made sense of cognitively
 in other words the repressed becomes “narrativized” in therapy

On the couch: a session with a psychoanalyst

 an important development in Western concepts of the modern self
 this self is divided between conscious and unconscious forces
 the self is a battle ground for unresolved repressed drives

 a timely theory for Freud’s era (late 19 th and early
20 th centuries)

Victorian era – known for sexual repression and strict moral codes

Freud’s theory comments on this and heralds a new era and a new subjectivity: the modern self


Freud is also radical in that he restores the body to
Western philosophy
 modern Western philosophy since Descartes (Early
Modern era) and the Enlightenment (Kant) based on reason and rationality


Je pense, ainsi je suis

Ich denke, also bin ich

I think, therefore I am

 precedence of mind (rationality and reason) over body (lower order)
 body: secondary to reason, not the essential part of the individual’s identity


Freud restores the body to Western thought through his theory of the drives
 central position of sexual desire which society compels us to repress from the earliest point
 we are sexual physical beings; we can be aggressive and violent


Freud’s view modifies the idea of man as a noble creature apart from the animal world
 he thus undermines the Biblical idea of man being made in God’s likeness

“God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. (Genesis 1:27)

Psychoanalysis and evolutionary biology
 influence of Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
(1859), foundational text of evolutionary biology
 principle of natural selection (survival of the fittest)

“On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” (full title)

 the conscious and unconscious minds are not two separate halves of one mind

Freud does not mean to present us with an “upstairs
/ downstairs” model of the mind
 it is more useful to think of the mind as a forcefield comprised of mutually co-determining conscious thoughts and unconscious drives

 in short, the mind is a battleground for these forces
 sometimes the unconscious drives will have the upper hand….

 one of Freud’s most famous examples of when the drives have the upper hand is in his theory of dreams
 the mind is resting – in sleep mode – so repression and censorship relax….
 repressed thoughts can thus rise to the surface – often referred to as “the return of the repressed”

A Freudian slip by President
George H.W. Bush

"For seven and a half years I've worked alongside
President Reagan. We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex... uh... setbacks."