Psychoanalytic Criticism Essay -- Psychology Freud Psychological Paper

Psychoanalytic CriticismIntroduction The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud spent much of his life exploring the workings of the unconscious. Freuds work has influenced society in ways which we take for granted. When we babble of Freudian slips or look for hidden causes behind irrational behavior, we are using aspects of Freudian analysis. Many literary critics have also adopted Freuds variant theories and methods. In order to define Freudian literary criticism, we will examine how various critics approach Freuds work. We will pay special attention to issues of creativity , antecedent psychology , and psycho-biography . Creativity and neurosis Many of us may be familiar with the notion that creativity is intertwined with repression and pain. We may look at the paintings of Van van Gogh as a recording of his descent into madness. Both the literary critic Li sensationl Trilling and Freud have written on the connection between the unconscious and elegant production. In The Liberal Imaginat ion, Trilling writes of the mechanisms by which art makes its effects (53). Trilling suggests that these mechanisms make the thoughts of the unconscious more acceptable to the conscious, and he refers to mechanisms such as the condensations of meanings and the translation of accent (53). The processes of condensation and displacement are both described by Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams thoughts and images in dreams may have more than one meaning, Freud says, and one thought or image may be transferred onto another one, possibly because the mind finds the second thought or image more acceptable than the offset printing one. Freud labels the former process condensation and the latter one displacement. Freud devised these terms for hi... ... by the roles and portrayals of women in society. Works Cited Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Ed. and trans. James Strachey. New York Basic Books, 1965. Irigaray, Luce. Another Cause--Castration. Feminisms. Ed. Robyn R. Warho l and Diane determine Herndl. New Brunswick Rutgers Univ. Press, 1991. 404-12. Frederick, Karl. Introduction to the Danse Macabre Conrads life of Darkness. Heart of Darkness A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York St. Martins Press, 1989. 123-138. Murfin, Ross C. Psychoanalytic Criticism and Heart of Darkness. Heart of Darkness A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York St. Martins Press, 1989. 113- 123. Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination. New York Viking, 1950. Wilson, Edmund. The Wound and the Bow. New York Oxford UP, 1947.