|
Links
|
Psychological
Criticism
|
 |
There are many levels of psychological criticism, but I will
only focus on a few of the basic concepts.
Psychological Terms
-
Isolation:
Understanding something that should be upsetting, but failing to react to it.
-
Intellectualization: Analyzing and rationalizing rather than feeling and reacting. The issue is not forgotten; it is just turned into an intellectual
issue.
-
Repression: Selectively
forgetting about whatever is troubling.
-
Projection: Denying
thoughts and feelings by attributing them to someone else.
-
Displacement: Shifting
an emotion from its real target to another one.
Usually, a threatening, powerful target is exchanged for a safer one.
-
Denial:
Falsifying reality.
-
Reversal: Asserting
the opposite of the truth, turning an emotion around.
-
Reaction formation: A pattern of behavior that repeatedly reverses the truth; an
obsessive kind of denial.
|
The Unconscious
|
Psychological criticism focuses on how
unconscious suppressed
fears or desires are portrayed
through writing.
When applying this
technique focus on the possible suppressed fears or desires of the
-
author,
-
characters, or
-
readers.
|
Id, Ego, and Super Ego
|
The id, ego, and super ego are part of the human psyche.
-
The id is housed by the unconscious and contains all instincts and
repressed desires.
-
The ego
is housed by the preconscious and thinks
rationally because it has the task
of self preservation, and control over instincts.
-
The super ego
is housed by the preconscious and strictly follows
social
norms and behaviors, and is aware of laws
and rules.
|
The Oedipus Complex
| Freud explained the Oedipus
complex as a boy’s attraction to his mother, which is unable to materialize
because of his father. The father becomes
the boy's rival because he is in the way of the boy's desire, and the way in
which this complex is overcome is for the boy to see his father as the
source of all authority and fear castration. The boy then abandons his
desire for his mother and begins to identify with his father and his
position of power becuase he also has a penis.
Freud states that every person is unconsciously attracted to his/her
mother or father. A form of the Oedipus complex, Penis envy, is applied to girls, in which a girl turns away from her mother and towards
her father because she envies her father’s penis. |
-
Application Example
If you applied psychological
criticism to Hamlet you could write about the Oedipus complex by
discussing Hamlet’s feelings towards his mother, uncle, or father. You could also look at
Hamlet's ego,
id, and super ego.
For Further
Exploration...
Kelly Stevens, 22 April 2004 |