Psychoanalysis & Structuralism
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Classical Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
Theory of the Psyche
Humans are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware, that is unconscious
The world through psychoanalytic lens
Individual human beings
Psychological history
Childhood -> adolescent -> adult behavior
Goal: help us resolve problems
Disorders
Dysfunctions
Patterns of behavior – destructive (in some way)
The Unconscious
The storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions
Wounds
Fears
Guilty pleasures
Unresolved conflicts
Repression – to hide forcefully those unhappy psychological events (especially when we are very young)
Repression
Does not eliminate our painful experiences and emotions
We unconsciously behave in ways that will allow us to “play out” without admitting it to ourselves
The Family
Very important because we are each a product of the role
The “birth” of the unconscious lies in the way we perceive our place in the family and how we react to this self-definition
Oedipal conflict
Competition with the parent of the same gender for the attention and affection of the opposite gender
Freudian theory
Sibling rivalry
Penis envy – “women are naturally envious of men” (for authority)
Castration anxiety – men afraid of losing power
Starting points
Developmental stages (Oedipal attachments, sibling rivalry, and the like)
We go through all of these experiences, natural -> part of maturing and establishing identities
If we fail to outgrow: PROBLEM
Defenses
Serves our unconscious desires not to recognize or change our destructive behaviors because we have formed our identities around them
Contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious
We keep the repressed repressed in order to avoid knowing what we tell we cannot handle knowing
Selective Perception
Selective Memory
Denial
Avoidance
Displacement
Projection
Regression
Temporary return to a former psychological state, which
Classical Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
Theory of the Psyche
Humans are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware, that is unconscious
The world through psychoanalytic lens
Individual human beings
Psychological history
Childhood -> adolescent -> adult behavior
Goal: help us resolve problems
Disorders
Dysfunctions
Patterns of behavior – destructive (in some way)
The Unconscious
The storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions
Wounds
Fears
Guilty pleasures
Unresolved conflicts
Repression – to hide forcefully those unhappy psychological events (especially when we are very young)
Repression
Does not eliminate our painful experiences and emotions
We unconsciously behave in ways that will allow us to “play out” without admitting it to ourselves
The Family
Very important because we are each a product of the role
The “birth” of the unconscious lies in the way we perceive our place in the family and how we react to this self-definition
Oedipal conflict
Competition with the parent of the same gender for the attention and affection of the opposite gender
Freudian theory
Sibling rivalry
Penis envy – “women are naturally envious of men” (for authority)
Castration anxiety – men afraid of losing power
Starting points
Developmental stages (Oedipal attachments, sibling rivalry, and the like)
We go through all of these experiences, natural -> part of maturing and establishing identities
If we fail to outgrow: PROBLEM
Defenses
Serves our unconscious desires not to recognize or change our destructive behaviors because we have formed our identities around them
Contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious
We keep the repressed repressed in order to avoid knowing what we tell we cannot handle knowing
Selective Perception
Selective Memory
Denial
Avoidance
Displacement
Projection
Regression
Temporary return to a former psychological state, which