psyche

Why We Read

Briefly, psychoanalysis attempts to understand the workings and source of
unconscious desires, needs, anxieties, and behavior of writers, readers, and
specific cultural phenomena. Psychoanalysts want to understand human
behavioral patterns and also cultural behavior patterns (some focus on the
psyche of a single author while others see "culture" as a kind of body with
symptoms to diagnose, etc.). More specifically, psychoanalytic readers want to
identify the concepts operating in a text in such a way as to enrich our
understanding of it and maybe offer ways to "cure" the patient.

What We Read

Psychoanalysis is willing to use any type of text in order to understand the larger
patterns of behavior, from representations like single sentences, logos, literary
texts, films, public space, etc. to behaviors like repetitive gestures, physical
violence, habits and rituals, etc. In short, any representation or behavior is fair
game.

How We Read

The approach relies heavily on several key concepts used to explain the
workings of a text:

� The Unconscious

The unconscious or latent content is the part of our "psyche" or human mind
which can be compared to the part of an iceberg that is below water. Only a
part of our mind is visible or manifest while a large part is submerged below the
surface. This submerged part includes the impulses, desires, and feelings we are
unaware of, but which nevertheless influence our emotions and behavior. "I am
where I think not."

� The Pleasure Principle

For psychoanalysts, human behavior is motivated by the "pleasure principle" or
the "id." That is, inside us all is this incredible energy which desires and demands
satisfaction. This energy is the source of our aggressions and desires. Its function
is to gratify our instincts for pleasure without regard for social conventions, legal
ethics, or moral restraint. Unchecked, these desires would lead us to any
lengths, even self-destruction, to satisfy its impulses for pleasure. You could
compare this energy to unrestricted flood waters.

� Repression

There are powerful social taboos, restrictions, or laws which constrain our
desires, instincts, aggressions, etc. (the "super-ego"). These restrictions--which
function as a kind of sluice gate that channels and guides the water-- may come
in the form of a legal code, religious commandments, or a parent's rule.
However, our desire doesn't just go away or die. Instead, we repress, hold
back, censor, or restrain our desires and aggressions. While some desires get
transformed into a more socially acceptable form (i.e. aggressive games) many
desires and impulses get shoved back into the unconscious.

� Dream Work

Dream work is the process by which our desires and aggressions get translated
into an acceptable form. In other words, our desires and impulses are often
expressed, but never in their raw form. Totally repressed desires produce
psychological malfunctions.

� Defense Strategies

Defense strategies refer to the way in which an author or a culture
simultaneously hides and reveals unconscious desires, etc. See Feluga's web site
for a particularly helpful description of a range of defense strategies.

Condensation... is "brought about (1) by the total omission of certain
latent dream elements, (2) by only a fragment of some complexes in the
latent dream passing over into the manifest one and (3) by latent
elements which have something in common being combined and fused
into a single unity in the manifest dream" (Scholes et. al. Text Book).
Therefore, look for uses of synecdoche where one thing represents
another by having a part stand in for the whole, as in "I own fifty head of
cattle," and metonymy where one thing is replaced by something closely
associated with it, as in "The Whitehouse provided a press release
today." A part of the whole, a cow's head, stands in for the whole of the
cow. The "Whitehouse" is not a part of the presidency, but something
associated with it.

Displacement... "manifests itself in two ways: in the first, a latent
element is replaced not by a component of itself but by something more
remote--that is, by an allusion; and in the second, the psychical accent is
shifted from an important element into another which is unimportant, so
that the dream appears differently centered and staged" (Scholes et. al.
Text Book). Therefore, look for uses of allusion and metaphor.

imagery... transforms thoughts into visual images. Imagery should be
familiar territory to readers, but pay particular attention to imagery
having to do with sexuality, authority, and repression.

depression

projection

contempt

grandiosity or sublimation

alienation

reaction formation

repetitive compulsion

In Short...

Psychoanalysts assume that the unconscious exists and that texts contain and
reveal (indirectly) the unconscious feelings, desires, aggressions of a writer or
speaker or culture. A reader's interpretation can also be studied to reveal a
reader's unconscious desires, anxieties, etc. For example, asking you to tell me
which fairy tale character you identify with may reveal some kind of
psychological concern or preoccupation. In other words, we want to satisfy our
desires, but we can't because they are socially unacceptable. As a result, we
repress those unacceptable desires and impulses. However, we can never fully
repress our cravings, and they are expressed when we interact with people,
talk, or write.

Your Task

To read through a psychoanalyst's lens, you need to make visible and explain
the author's (or a culture's) "symptoms," that is, unconscious desires, impulses,
anxieties, fears, and pleasures. You also need to explain the source of those
initial anxieties, and you need to explain which concepts are operating in a text.
Texts give symbolic expression to these inner experiences. Your task is to turn
the details of a text into symbols that reflect the workings of the
unconscious. In this way psychoanalysis resembles structuralism in that you
need to link the manifest content or "parole" with the latent content or the
psychological "langue." Put another way, use the theory of psychoanalysis as a
kind of "master discourse" to explain the literary text (this means that
psychoanalysis is stands above or beyond the literary, not along side with it).
You need to locate examples of defense mechanisms and how they function in a
text. So, psychoanalytical vocabulary and concepts are important.

An easy way to do this is to simplify what characters in the text want to
accomplish, what they fear, and what makes them (un)happy. Then, look for
"real life" sources of those desires, fears, and comfortable places. Look for
symbolic manifestations of the family, personal history, and social structures.
Focus on themes having to do with separation, loss, boundaries, coherent
identity,

For example, Bettelheim argues that the house in "Hansel and Gretel" "stands for
oral greediness and how attractive it is to give in to it." The gingerbread house is
a symbol of the mother "who in fact nurses the infant from her body." Perhaps
the easiest way to go about a psychoanalytical reading is to pretend that texts
are dreams that you must interpret. You can also see a text as a commentary
about culture in that the author is saying something about our culture's
psychological workings. In other words, the author is giving us a
psychoanalytical reading of a cultural phenomenon. I assume that you've all tried
to interpret your own dreams, so all you have to do now is interpret someone
else's dream (which in this case takes the form of a text). Again, just pretend
that you're a therapist and your patient is an author and what he or she says
sounds a lot like a literary text (or advertisement, film, etc.). Your job is to
explain to the author (or to us of course) what is going on in his or her
unconscious.