The
unconscious
activities of
our mind
Guilt
Sexual
desires
Shameful
experiences
FEAR
1856 - 1939
Austrian
psychiatrist and
founder of
psychoanalysis
Dreams
 Freud’s belief in the significance of dreams leads
to the study of psychoanalytic criticism
 They are also revealed in creative arts – such as in
literature
 “A work of literature is a fantasy or a dream”
 Analyzing literature is similar to analyzing
dreams – also applies Freud’s theories
 Manifest content & latent content
 Manifest content – the surface of a work
 Latent content – the real desire (hidden)
 because writers often express their secret unconscious
desires and anxieties indirectly in text
 Psychoanalytic literary critic tries to expose the
latent content of a work
 Latent form – writers often disguise their
unconscious mind through principles such as
 Symbolism - the repressed object represented in
disguise
 Condensation – thoughts or persons condensed into a
single image
 Displacement – anxiety or wish displaced onto the
image of another
 Oedipus Complex
 Phallic Symbols
 Central Problems—associated with sexual awakening,
dependence/independence conflict, sibling rivalry,
inferiority complex, separation/desertion anxiety.
 In a later generation,
psychoanalytic critics analyze
characters within the novel
using Freud’s famous
Personality model.
 Critics see them as a
projection of author’s psyche
 Personality structure:
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Id –unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a
storehouse of our desires, wishes, and fears.
Superego – the conscience, criticizes and prohibits his
or her drives, fantasies, feelings, and actions.
Ego – the thinking part of both id and superego, the
“reality”
 Id –unconscious part of the psyche that
serves as a storehouse of our desires,
wishes, and fears.
 Superego – the conscience, criticizes and
prohibits his or her drives, fantasies,
feelings, and actions.
 Ego – the thinking part of both id and
superego, the “reality”
 How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
 Are there any oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - at



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work here?
How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be
explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for
example...fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes
love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of
psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its
author?
What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the
psychological motives of the reader?
Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or
hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the
author using these "problem words"?