PSYCHOANALYSIS

LEVELS OF
MENTAL HEALTH
 CONSCIOUS
 Currentcontents of your mind that
you actively think of
 What we call working memory
 Easily accessed all the time
 PRECONSCIOUS
 Contents of the mind you are not
currently aware of
 Thoughts, memories, knowledge,
wishes, feelings
 Available for easy access when
needed
 UNCONSCIOUS
 Contents kept out of COME OUT IN
conscious awareness VARIOUS WAYS:
 Not accessible at all  Slips of the tongue
 Processes that actively  Dreams
keep these thoughts
 Jokes
from awareness
 Anxiety
 Defense mechanisms
 STRUCTURE OF
PERSONALITY
ID (PLEASURE PRINCIPLE)
To gain pleasure and avoid pain
EGO (REALITY PRINCIPLE)
Does realistic and logical thinking;
balances id and superego
SUPEREGO (MORAL
PRINCIPLE)
Able to differentiate good and bad
The
interpretation
of dreams:

Dreams are
symbolic
fulfillments
of wishes
that can’t be
fulfilled
because
they’ve been
repressed.
 DECONSTRUCTION:
Psychoanalysis
SIGMUND FREUD
Terms:
 Sublimation: desires that can’t or shouldn’t be
fulfilled are turned into something useful and
productive.
 Repressed in the unconscious. They are brought
into conscious through: dreams, parapraxes, and
jokes.
 DECONSTRUCTION:
Psychoanalysis
SIGMUND FREUD
 The interpretation of dreams:

Dreams are symbolic fulfillments of wishes that

can’t be fulfilled because they’ve been repressed.
 Condensation: in which the repressed returns in
hidden ways; a product of displacement
 E.g. A distorted dream is a result of several themes and
concepts condensed into one dream symbol.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC
LITERARY CRITICISM
 Argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret
unconscious desires and anxieties of the author
 A literary work is a manifestation of the author’s own
neuroses– a kind of textual “talk therapy”
 Assumes that all concepts in the text such as characters
are projections of the author’s psyche
 Seeks evidence of unresolved emotions, psychological
conflicts, guilt, ambivalences, etc – author’s own
childhood traumas, family life, sexual conflicts, fixations
 PSYCHOANALYTIC
LITERARY CRITICISM
 Does not concern itself with “what the author intended” but what
the author NEVER intended is sought
 Psychoanalytic critics would ask questions:
 What is Shakespeare’s problem?
 Why can’t Emily Bronte seem to portray any
positive mother figures?
 Why can’t J.K. Rowling focus on one love
interest?
PSYCHOSEXUAL
STAGES
 ORAL Fixations
Freud may also suggest that
• nail-biting
• Smoking
• gum-chewing
• excessive drinking

What are other adverse fixations?

 ANAL Fixations
• Anal-retentive individuals: This group may have
experienced overly strict and harsh potty training as
children and may grow to be overly obsessed with
orderliness and tidiness.
• Anal-expulsive individuals: On the other hand, anal-
expulsive individuals may have experienced very lax potty
training, resulting in them being very messy and
disorganized as adults.

What are other adverse fixations?

 PHALLIC Fixations
Adult personalities:
• are overly vain
• Exhibitionistic
• sexually aggressive

What are other adverse fixations?

 DECONSTRUCTION:
Psychoanalysis
Oedipus/Electra Complex
 how desires get repressed
 how desires form the unconscious
 how girls and boys learn to desire objects outside
of their own families
 how each sex learns the desire someone of the
opposite sex
 how the superego (the reality principle,
conscience) gets formed
 DM
E e
c
Fh
Ea
Nn
i
Ss
Em
Invented by the ego in attempt to resolve the problem
between id and superego so personality can operate in a
healthy manner
 REPRESSION

can’t be accessed by the

DISPLACEMENT

mother punishes her child

RATIONALIZATION
DENIAL
REGRESSION
REACTION FORMATION
PROJECTION
CINDERELLA
 ID
 Evident when
Cinderella is
crying and
wishing to be
at the 3-day
festival
because she
was told she
could not go.
 EGO

 Evident with use of DEFENSE MECHANISM:

 Identification: stepsisters identify with their mother
and adopt her evil intentions
 Denial:
 Cinderella is finding it difficult to cope with remarriage just
after mother’s death.
 Stepmother has daughters try to fit in to the shoe to become
prince’s bride.
 SUPEREGO
 Evident because:
 Cinderella
maintains respect
for her stepmother
 Her mother told
her to remain kind
and positive while
on her deathbed.