PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(7)

Psychological approach to literature

The Psychological Approach: Freud

Freud’s Theories:

1. Freud emphasized the unconscious aspects of the human psyche
2. Most of the individual’s mental processes are unconscious
3. All human behavior is motivated ultimately by sexuality (However, some of Freud’s own disciples have rejected this, including Jung and Adler)

the summary of all human behaviour is motivated by sexuality is :

The time has arrived for me to attempt to summarize what I have said. We started

out from the aberrations of the sexual instinct in respect of its object and of its aim and

we were faced by the question of whether these arise from an innate disposition or are

acquired as a result of experiences in life. We arrived at an answer to this question from

an understanding, derived from psycho-analytic investigation, of the workings of the

sexual instinct in psychoneurotics, a numerous class of people and one not far removed

from the healthy. We found that in them tendencies to every kind of perversion can be

shown to exist as unconscious forces and betray their presence as factors leading to the

formation of symptoms. It was thus possible to say that neurosis is, as it were, the

negative of perversion. In view of what was now seen to be the wide dissemination of

tendencies to perversion we were driven to the conclusion that a disposition to

perversions is an original and universal disposition of the human sexual instinct and that

normal sexual behaviour is developed out of it as a result of organic changes and

psychical inhibitions occurring in the course of maturation; we hoped to be able to show

the presence of this original disposition in childhood. Among the forces restricting the

direction taken by the sexual instinct we laid emphasis upon shame, disgust, pity and the

structures of morality and authority erected by society. We were thus led to regard any

established aberration from normal sexuality as an instance of developmental inhibition

and infantilism. Though it was necessary to place in the foreground the importance of the

variations in the original disposition, a co-operative and not an opposing relation was to

be assumed as existing between them and the influences of actual life. It appeared, on the

other hand, that since the original disposition is necessarily a complex one, the sexual

instinct itself must be something put together from various factors, and that in the

perversions it falls apart, as it were, into its components. The perversions were thus seen

to be on the one hand inhibitions, and on the other hand dissociations, of normal

development. Both these aspects were brought together in the supposition that the sexual

instinct of adults arises from a

After having explained the preponderance of perverse tendencies in psychoneurotics

by recognizing it as a collateral filling of subsidiary channels when the main current of

the instinctual stream has been blocked by ‘repression’,

of sexual life in childhood. We found it a regrettable thing that the existence of the sexual

instinct in childhood has been denied and that the sexual manifestations not infrequently

to be observed in children have been described as irregularities. It seemed to us on the

contrary that children bring germs of sexual activity with them into the world, that they

already enjoy sexual satisfaction when they begin to take nourishment and that they

persistently seek to repeat the experience in the familiar activity of ‘thumb-sucking’. The

sexual activity of children, however, does not, it appeared, develop pan passu with their

other functions, but, after a short period of efflorescence from the ages of two to five,

combination of a number of impulses of childhood into a unity, an impulsion with a single aim.1 we proceeded to a consideration2

enters upon the so-called period of latency. During that period the production of sexual

excitation is not by any means stopped but continues and produces a store of energy

which is employed to a great extent for purposes other than sexual—namely, on the one

hand in contributing the sexual components to social feelings and on the other hand

(through repression and reaction-forming) in building up the subsequently developed

barriers against sexuality. On this view, the forces destined to retain the sexual instinct

upon certain lines are built up in childhood chiefly at the cost of perverse sexual impulses

and with the assistance of education. A certain portion of the infantile sexual impulses

would seem to evade these uses and succeed in expressing itself as sexual activity. We

next found that sexual excitation in children springs from a multiplicity of forces.

Sigmund Freud

Summary :

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(6)

approach to literature

The Psychological Approach: Freud

Aim of Psychological Approach:

Provide many profound clues toward solving a work’s thematic and symbolic mysteries


Abuses and Misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach:

In the general sense of the word, nothing new about psychological approach. Used as early as the 4th century by Aristotle.
During the twentieth century, psychological criticism has come to be associated with the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and his followers. This association has resulted in most of the abuses and misunderstandings of this approach.
Abuses results from an excess of enthusiasm, which has manifested several ways:
Advocates push their critical theses to hard, forcing the psychoanalytical theory at expense of other considerations
The literary criticism of the psychoanalytical extremists degenerated into a special occultism with its own mystique and jargon used specifically for the in-group.
Results in widespread mistrust of the psychological approach in analyzing literature

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(5)

Psychological approach to literature

The Psychological Approach: Freud

Applications of Frued’s theories


1) Symbolism — most images interpreted in terms of sexuality

a) concave images (ponds, flowers, cups, vases, caves, hollows, tunnels)

—female or womb symbols

b) long (erect) images (towers, snakes, knives, swords, trees, poles, sky scrapers, missiles)

— male or phallic symbols

c) activities (dancing riding, flying) symbols of sexual pleasure.

· Of ten pushed too far — Little Red Riding Hood

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(4)

Psychological approach to literature

The Psychological Approach: Freud

Applications of Frued’s theories



2) Child Psychology

infant and childhood are formative years a period of intense sexual development and awareness.

First five years children pass through several phases in erotic development.

1) Oral 2) Anal 3) Genital

Frustration in the gratification of any of these: eating, elimination, or reproduction may result in an adult personality that is warped.

If a child’s development is arrested in any one of these phases, he may develop a fixation

 

Fixation:

1. Oral — pre—mature weaning may result in cigarette smoking

2. Anal — overly strict toilet training — fastidious, fussy

3. Genital — close attachment to parent — may develop either an Oedipus or Electra Complex.

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(3)

The Psychological Approach: Freud

Examples of the Psychological Approach in practice:

The Oedipus Complex in Hamlet (Oedipus Complex is when a boy is sexually attracted to his mother)
Rebellion against the father in Huckleberry Finn
Id versus Superego in the short story “Young Goodman Brown”
The consequences of sexual repression in The Turn of the Screw
Love and Death in the short story “Sick Rose”
Sexual Imagery in the poem “To His Coy Mistress” (Most often use of sexual imagery is finding phallic and yonic symbols)
Morality over the pleasure principle in the short story “Everyday Use”

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE(2)

uses psychoanalytic theories, especially those of Freud and Jacques Lacan, to understand more fully the text, the reader, and the writer. The basis of this approach is the idea of the existence of a human consciousness – those impulses, desires, and feelings about which a person is unaware but which influence emotions or behavior. Critics use psychological approaches to explore the motivations of characters and the symbolic meanings of events, while biographers speculate about a writer’s own motivations – conscious or unconscious – in a literary work.

Queer theory, or gender studies

, is a relatively recent and evolving school of criticism, which questions and problematizes the issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in literary texts. Queer theory overlaps in many respects with feminist theory in its aims and goals, being at once political and practical. To many queer theorists, gender is not a fixed identity that shapes actions and thoughts, but rather a "role" that is "performed." It also challenges the notion that there is such a thing as "normal," because that assumes the existence of a category for "deviant." Queer theorists study and challenge the idea that these categories exist at all, but particularly in terms of sexual activities and identities. Reader-response criticism removes the focus from the text and places it on the reader instead, by attempting to describe what goes on in the reader’s mind during the reading of a text. Reader-response critics are not interested in a "correct" interpretation of a text or what the author intended. They are interested in the reader’s individual experience with a text. Thus, there is no single definitive reading of a text, because the reader is creating, as opposed to discovering, absolute meanings in texts. This approach is not a rationale for bizarre meanings or mistaken ones, but an exploration of the plurality of texts. This kind of strategy calls attention to how we read and what influences our readings, and what that reveals about ourselves

Psychological criticism

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO LITERATURE

During the twentieth century there has been a shift away from the “who done it “genre to the “why did he do it” Major writers have included Hermann Hess., Franz Kafka, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

In literary criticism some critics have abandoned the formalistic/aesthetic approach because of their limitations and inadequacies in coming to terms with the major concerns of modern literature. Rather than being “Art for Arts sake”, modern literature tends to be more exploratory and didactic. The emphasis is more on character and motivation than on form and structure.

The psychological approach to literary criticism is very controversial and is easily  abused.

Some critics argue that it was already used by Aristotle in his Poetics in the 4 th century BC,  when he defined tragedy as combining the emotions of pity and terror to produce “catharsis”.. These critics argue that this is merely a sub—conscious emotional response to literature.

 

FREUDIAN THEORIES

1.    Core theory — the unconscious aspects of the human psyche.  

Most of our actions (mental processes) are motivated by psychic forces over which we have little control.

·        Mind is like an iceberg — its greatest weight and density lies below the surface.

Two kinds of unconsciousness

a) pre—conscious — latent not directly aware of something, however with effort. it can be retrieved

b) unconcious — something very difficult to revivte mocceesfully blocked or repressed. Comes out in perverse ways.

Ex Novel/Movie — “Marnie

.2. Second theory (now rejected by most psychologists including Carl Jung, his disciple).

“All human behaviour is ultimately motivated  by sexuality.”

3. Freud’s Three Psychic Zones

1. Id — reservoir of libido

— primary source of all psychic energy

— functions to fulfil the primordial life principle

— our basic drives (S)

— pleasure principle

— no rational order / organisation/ will

— impulse to obtain gratification of instinctual needs

no regard for social conventions — asocial

— no values — good/evil amorphous/ amoral

— source of all aggression desires

— lawless, self—destructive

— pre—Freudians called it the “devil” in man

2. Ego

regulating agency to curb the Id

— protects the individual and society

— rational, reasoning, logical

— partially conscious

— aware of reality

3.. Super Ego

—      Largely unconscious

—      moral censoring agent

—      conscience, self—image, pride

—      moral restrictions or repression of Id.

—      blocks off or represses those drives which society regards as unacceptable.. operates on rewards and punishments

—      an overactive S.E. creates unconscious guilt (complex).

Healthy person has a well balanced Pyche, while an imbalance of any one force causes mental stress — neurosis  - today of called a syndrome or a disorder.

Id       pleasure principle  animals

Ego    reality mankind

Super Ego   morality       “        angels

Applications of Frued’s theories

1) Symbolism — most images interpreted in terms of sexuality

a) concave images (ponds, flowers, cups, vases, caves, hollows, tunnels)

—female or womb symbols

b) long  (erect) images (towers, snakes, knives, swords, trees, poles, sky scrapers, missiles)

— male or phallic symbols

c) activities (dancing riding, flying) symbols of sexual pleasure.

·        Of ten pushed too far — Little Red Riding Hood

2)  Child Psychology

infant and childhood are formative years a period of intense sexual development and awareness.

First five years children pass through several phases in erotic development.

1)       Oral   2) Anal         3) Genital

Frustration in the gratification of any of these: eating, elimination, or reproduction may result in an adult personality that is warped.

If a child’s development is arrested in any one of these phases, he may develop a “fixation”.

Fixation:

1.       Oral — pre—mature weaning    may result in cigarette smoking

2.       Anal — overly strict toilet training — fastidious, fussy

3.       Genital — close attachment to parent — may develop either  an Oedipus or Electra Complex.

 

Psychological  Defence Mechanisms

Our ego is very delicate and fragile and so we often use ways and means to

try to protect it.  In the face of confusion, disappointment, failure, conflict and frustration, our psyche needs help to cope. Without “psychological crutches” we become stressed or anxious. We can have  three reactions to Anxiety or stress:

1) Attack problem and develop solutions.

2) Ignore the problem, hope it will go away.

3) Def end ourselves (our ego, self esteem, image)

Psychological Mechanisms,

I   Substitution   -  Compensating

·        Overdoing one thing to cover up deficiencies in other areas.

·        conversationalist — good talker — not a doer.

I I.  Repression   - Blocking

·        Try to forget failures or unfortunate incident.

·        we forget to perform unpleasant duties.

I I I    RATIONALISATION  -  Justifications

·        we substitute a “good reason” for an action rather than the real one.

·        wishful thinking — not reasoning

IV.   REGRESSION   - Reverting to former states.

·        Reverting to childish behaviour or habits

·        often covers up fact that we can not cope with problem.

V.   SUBLIMATION

·        Basic drives become expressed in socially accepted forms.

·        hostility expressed in competitive sports.

·        a blood thirsty individual becomes a butcher.

VI.  - IDENTIFICATION

·        Role—playing — we take on characteristics of a person we admire. a Hero—worship or modelling (apeing)

VII.  INSULATION

·        Protective Shell

·        being aloof, distant, unconcerned, cold, “don’t  care”

·        self-sufficient,  detached  “cool”.

VIII.  SCAPEGOATING     -  Justification

·        Blaming our own faults, deficiencies, inadequacies on others.

IX.      INTELLECTUALISATION

·        Trying to remain objective, analytical, untouched in an emotionally threatening event.

X.       MALINGERING    -  A Psycho-somatic disorder

·        Adjusting through injury.

·        Taking to your bed

·        Having a headache

·        Feeling sick to the stomach

XI.         AGGRESSION  -

 Reacting rather than responding to a situation.

·        You become overwhelmed by frustration and a sense of powerlessness or impotence to the extent that you react in a violent, vindictive and destructive manner.

Merits of Psychological Approach:

In the right hands, this approach can be useful in understanding motivation and causality.  Psychoanalysis has helped us to understand human behaviour and many writers have explored this field to great advantage.

Freud’s contribution to the formative and impressionable childhood years has also assisted us in providing conditions to maximise children’s potential.

Limitations of Psychological Approach:

While beneficial, we have to realise that Psychoanalysis alone will not lead to a full understanding of a work of art.  There are many other valid interpretations.