Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic criticism the most influential interpretative theory among the series of waves in the post war period is based on the specific premises of the workings of the mind, the instincts and sexuality, developed by the 19th Century intellect, Austrian Sigmund Freud. Freud, greatly influenced by the psychiatrists Jean- Martin Charcot and Joseph Breuer proposed his theoretical opus, the notion of unconscious mind (disseminated in his significant works like The Ego, and the Id, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Interpretation of Dreams etc.) which proved fatal to the Enlightenment ideals, Auguste Compte's Positivism, etc, the pivots of Western rationalism. This stream of criticism has become one of the most exciting and challenging areas of literary and cultural studies today.
The relationship between psychoanalysis and literary criticism which spans much of the 20th century fundamentally concerned with the articulation of sexuality in language. It has moved through three main emphasis in its pursuit of the "literary unconscious" - on the author, on the reader and on the text. It started with Freud's analysis of the literary text as a "symptom of the artist", where the relationship between the author and the text is analogous to dreamers and their dreams. The psychoanalytic critic is able to reveal the tricks of repression, displacement, isolation, reversal, attribution, and other factors to identify themes, ideas and messages that are hidden in a literary work. Understanding the psychological messages in the literary work leads to an understanding of the author of that work. This understanding can guide the critic to deeper self -awareness.

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