Freud and
Psychoanalytical
Theory
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Austrian Psychologist
• Founded the clinical practice of psychoanalysis
to treat psychopathology in patients through
dialogue
• Investigated the interaction of conscious and
unconscious elements in the mind
– Repressed fears and conflicts are brought into the
conscious and faced openly, instead of remaining
buried in the unconscious
• The
Unconscious is
a dimension of
the human
mind that is
only partially
accessible to
consciousness
• Repository of
repressed
desires,
memories, and
instinctual
drives
– Many have to
do with
sexuality and
violence
Dreams
• The unconscious often
expresses itself in dreams
• Express wishes or desires that
cannot be expressed
consciously because they go
against society
• Dreams distort the
unconscious material and
makes it more acceptable
towards the conscious
Defense
Mechanisms
• psychic procedures for
avoiding painful
admissions or
recognitions
• Screen Memory –
inconsequential memory
whose function is to
obliterate a more
significant one
• Freudian Slip – repressed
material in the
unconscious finds an
outlet through slips of
the tongue, slips of the
pen, or unintended
actions
Repression and Sublimation
• Repression
– Forgetting or ignoring of unresolved
conflicts, unadmitted desires, or
traumatic past events
– Forced out of the conscious into the
unconscious
• Sublimation
– Repressed material is promoted into
something grander or is disguised as
something noble (religious
experiences, art, etc…)
Displacement and
Condensation
• Displacement
– One person or event is
represented by another, which
is in some way linked to or
associated with it
– Because of similar sounding
word or symbolic substitution
• Condensation
– A number of people, events,
or meanings are combined
and represented by a single
image in the dream
Displacement and
Condensation II
• They disguise the repressed fears and wishes
contained in the dream
• Gets past the censor that prevents wishes and fears
from surfacing into the conscious mind
• They fashion fears and dreams into images,
symbols, and metaphors
Transference and
Projection
• Transference
– The patient under
psychoanalysis redirects
the emotions recalled
towards the
psychoanalyst
• Projection
– When aspects of
ourselves are not
recognized as part of
ourselves
– Rather they or perceived
in or attributed to
another
3 Part Model
of the Psyche
• Ego – has to manage
the demands of the
superego, while
resisting the desires
of the id
• Id – inappropriate
desires and impulses
• Superego – the
conscience or what
society deems
acceptable
Sexuality
Begins at infancy, not puberty
3 stages
Oral
Anal
Phallic
Libido – energy drive associated with sexual desire
Eros – life instinct
Thanatos – death instinct
Oedipus Complex
• Male infant desires to
eliminate the father and
become the sexual partner of
the mother
• Only the father’s intervention
prevents incest
• Male infant gives up sexual
attraction to mother and
identifies with father
• Learns to desire other women
other than the mother
Homosexuality
and Women
• Freudian theory based
upon heterosexual
men
• Negative views of
women
– Sexuality based on
feelings of narcissism,
masochism, and
passivity
– Penis envy: women
suffer from an innate
form of inferiority
complex
Psychoanalytic Criticism
• The unconscious (like a poem, novel, or play)
cannot speak directly and explicitly
• Speaks through images, symbols, and
metaphors
• Literature expresses experience through
imagery, symbolism, and metaphor
Psychoanalytic Critics
Give central importance to the distinction
between the conscious and unconscious mind
Pay close attention to unconscious motives and
feelings
Those of the author
Those of the characters
Demonstrate the presence of psychoanalytic
symptoms, conditions, or phrases
Oral, anal, phallic stages
Oedipus Complex
Defense Mechanisms