psychoanalytic criticism essay questions

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36 What Is Psychological Criticism?

psychoanalytic criticism essay questions

One of the key principles of psychological criticism is the idea that literature can be used to explore and understand the human psyche, including unconscious and repressed desires and fears. For example, psychoanalytic criticism might explore how the characters in a work of literature are shaped by their early childhood experiences or their relationships with their parents.

Psychological criticism can be applied to any genre of literature, from poetry to novels to plays, and can be used to analyze a wide range of literary works, from classic literature to contemporary bestsellers. It is often used in conjunction with other critical approaches, such as feminist or postcolonial criticism, to explore the ways in which psychological factors intersect with social and cultural factors in the creation and interpretation of literary works.

Learning Objectives

Deliberate on what approach best suits particular texts and purposes (CLO 1.4)
Using a literary theory, choose appropriate elements of literature (formal, content, or context) to focus on in support of an interpretation (CLO 2.3)
Be exposed to a variety of critical strategies through literary theory lenses, such as formalism/New Criticism, reader-response, structuralism, deconstruction, historical and cultural approaches (New Historicism, postcolonial, Marxism), psychological approaches, feminism, and queer theory. (CLO 4.2)
Learn to make effective choices about applying critical strategies to texts that demonstrate awareness of the strategy’s assumptions and expectations, the text’s literary maneuvers, and the stance one takes in literary interpretation (CLO 4.4)
Be exposed to the diversity of human experience, thought, politics, and conditions through the application of critical theory (CLO 6.4)

Excerpts from Psychological Criticism Scholarship

I have a confession to make that is likely rooted in my unconscious (or perhaps I am repressing something): I don’t much care for Sigmund Freud. But his psychoanalytic approach underpins psychological criticism in literary studies, so it’s important to be aware of psychoanalytic concepts and how they can be used in literary analysis. We will read a few examples of psychological criticism below, starting with a primary text, a theoretical explanation of psychoanalytic theory, Freud’s “First Lecture” (1920). In this reading, Freud gives a broad outline of the two main tenets of his theories: 1) that our behaviors are often indicators of psychic processes that are unconscious; and 2) that sexual impulses are at the root of mental disorders as well as cultural achievements. In the second and third readings, I share two example of literary criticism, one written by a medical doctor in 1910 that use Freud’s Oedipus complex theories to explicate William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and the second, a modern example of psychological theory applied to the same play. To appreciate how influential Freud’s theories have been on the study of Hamlet , try a simple JSTOR search with “Freud” and “Hamlet” as your key terms. When I tried this in October 2023, the search yielded 7,420 results.

From “First Lecture” in A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud (1920)

With two of its assertions, psychoanalysis offends the whole world and draws aversion upon itself. One of these assertions offends an intellectual prejudice, the other an aesthetic-moral one. Let us not think too lightly of these prejudices; they are powerful things, remnants of useful, even necessary, developments of mankind. They are retained through powerful affects, and the battle against them is a hard one. The first of these displeasing assertions of psychoanalysis is this, that the psychic processes are in themselves unconscious, and that those which are conscious are merely isolated acts and parts of the total psychic life. Recollect that we are, on the contrary, accustomed to identify the psychic with the conscious. Consciousness actually means for us the distinguishing characteristic of the psychic life, and psychology is the science of the content of consciousness. Indeed, so obvious does this identification seem to us that we consider its slightest contradiction obvious nonsense, and yet psychoanalysis cannot avoid raising this contradiction; it cannot accept the identity of the conscious with the psychic. Its definition of the psychic affirms that they are processes of the nature of feeling, thinking, willing; and it must assert that there is such a thing as unconscious thinking and unconscious willing. But with this assertion psychoanalysis has alienated, to start with, the sympathy of all friends of sober science, and has laid itself open to the suspicion of being a fantastic mystery study which would build in darkness and fish in murky waters. You, however, ladies and gentlemen, naturally cannot as yet understand what justification I have for stigmatizing as a prejudice so abstract a phrase as this one, that “the psychic is consciousness.” You cannot know what evaluation can have led to the denial of the unconscious, if such a thing really exists, and what advantage may have resulted from this denial. It sounds like a mere argument over words whether one shall say that the psychic coincides with the conscious or whether one shall extend it beyond that, and yet I can assure you that by the acceptance of unconscious processes you have paved the way for a decisively new orientation in the world and in science. Just as little can you guess how intimate a connection this initial boldness of psychoanalysis has with the one which follows. The next assertion which psychoanalysis proclaims as one of its discoveries, affirms that those instinctive impulses which one can only call sexual in the narrower as well as in the wider sense, play an uncommonly large role in the causation of nervous and mental diseases, and that those impulses are a causation which has never been adequately appreciated. Nay, indeed, psychoanalysis claims that these same sexual impulses have made contributions whose value cannot be overestimated to the highest cultural, artistic and social achievements of the human mind. According to my experience, the aversion to this conclusion of psychoanalysis is the most significant source of the opposition which it encounters. Would you like to know how we explain this fact? We believe that civilization was forged by the driving force of vital necessity, at the cost of instinct-satisfaction, and that the process is to a large extent constantly repeated anew, since each individual who newly enters the human community repeats the sacrifices of his instinct-satisfaction for the sake of the common good. Among the instinctive forces thus utilized, the sexual impulses play a significant role. They are thereby sublimated, i.e., they are diverted from their sexual goals and directed to ends socially higher and no longer sexual. But this result is unstable. The sexual instincts are poorly tamed. Each individual who wishes to ally himself with the achievements of civilization is exposed to the danger of having his sexual instincts rebel against this sublimation. Society can conceive of no more serious menace to its civilization than would arise through the satisfying of the sexual instincts by their redirection toward their original goals. Society, therefore, does not relish being reminded of this ticklish spot in its origin; it has no interest in having the strength of the sexual instincts recognized and the meaning of the sexual life to the individual clearly delineated. On the contrary, society has taken the course of diverting attention from this whole field. This is the reason why society will not tolerate the above-mentioned results of psychoanalytic research, and would prefer to brand it as aesthetically offensive and morally objectionable or dangerous. Since, however, one cannot attack an ostensibly objective result of scientific inquiry with such objections, the criticism must be translated to an intellectual level if it is to be voiced. But it is a predisposition of human nature to consider an unpleasant idea untrue, and then it is easy to find arguments against it. Society thus brands what is unpleasant as untrue, denying the conclusions of psychoanalysis with logical and pertinent arguments. These arguments originate from affective sources, however, and society holds to these prejudices against all attempts at refutation.

Excerpts from “The Œdipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery: A Study in Motive” by Ernest Jones (1910)

The particular problem of Hamlet, with which this paper is concerned, is intimately related to some of the most frequently recurring problems that are presented in the course of psycho-analysis [sic], and it has thus seemed possible to secure a new point of view from which an answer might be offered to questions that have baffled attempts made along less technical routes. Some of the most competent literary authorities have freely acknowledged the inadequacy of all the solutions of the problem that have up to the present been offered, and from a psychological point of view this inadequacy is still more evident. The aim of the present paper is to expound an hypothesis which Freud some nine years ago suggested in one of the footnotes to his Traumdeutung ,·so far as I am aware it has not been critically discussed since its publication. Before attempting this it will be necessary to make a few general remarks about the nature of the problem and the previous solutions that have been offered. The problem presented by the tragedy of Hamlet is one of peculiar interest in at least two respects. In the first place the play is almost universally considered to be the chief masterpiece of one of the greatest minds the world has known. It probably expresses the core of Shakspere’s [sic] philosophy and outlook on life as no other work of his does, and so far excels all his other writings that many competent critics would place it on an entirely separate level from them. It may be expected, therefore, that anything which will give us the key to the inner meaning of the play will necessarily give us the clue to much of the deeper workings of Shakspere’s mind. In the second place the intrinsic interest of the play is exceedingly great. The central mystery in it, namely the cause of Hamlet’s hesitancy in seeking to obtain revenge for the murder of his father, has well been called the Sphinx of modern Literature. It has given rise to a regiment of hypotheses, and to a large library of critical and controversial literature; this is mainly German and for the most part has grown up in the past fifty years. No review of the literature will here be attempted…. The most important hypotheses that have been put forward are sub-varieties of three main points of view. The first of these sees the difficulty in the performance of the task in Hamlet’s temperament, which is not suited to effective action of any kind; the second sees it in the nature of the task, which is such as to be almost impossible of performance by any one; and the third in some special feature in the nature of the task which renders it peculiarly difficult or repugnant to Hamlet…. No disconnected and meaningless drama could have produced the effects on its audiences that Hamlet has continuously done for the past three centuries. The underlying meaning of the drama may be totally obscure, but that there is one, and one which touches on problems of vital interest to the human heart, is empirically demonstrated by the uniform success with which the drama appeals to the most diverse audiences. To hold the contrary is to deny all the canons of dramatic art accepted since the time of Aristotle. Hamlet as a masterpiece stands or falls by these canons. We are compelled then to take the position that there is some cause for Hamlet’s vacillation which has not yet been fathomed. If this lies neither in his incapacity for action in general, nor in the inordinate difficulty of the task in question, then it must of necessity lie in the third possibility, namely in some special feature of the task that renders it repugnant to him. This conclusion, that Hamlet at heart does not want to carry out the task, seems so obvious that it is hard to see how any critical reader of the play could avoid making it…. It may be asked: why has the poet not put in a clearer light the mental trend we are trying to discover? Strange as it may appear, the answer is the same as in the case of Hamlet himself, namely, he could not, because he was unaware of its nature. We shall later deal with this matter in connection with the relation of the poet to the play. But, if the motive of the play is so obscure, to what can we attribute its powerful effect on the audience? This can only be because the hero’s conflict finds its echo in a similar inner conflict in the mind of the hearer, and the more intense is this already present conflict the greater is the effect of the drama. Again, the hearer himself does not know the inner cause of the conflict in his mind, but experiences only the outer manifestations of it. We thus reach the apparent paradox that the hero, the poet, and the audience are all profoundly moved by feelings due to a conflict of the source of which they are unaware [emphasis added]. The extensive experience of the psycho-analytic researches carried out by Freud and his school during the past twenty years has amply demonstrated that certain kinds of mental processes shew a greater tendency to be “repressed” ( verdrangt ) than others. In other words, it is harder for a person to own to himself the existence in his mind of some mental trends than it is of others. In order to gain a correct perspective it is therefore desirable briefly to enquire into the relative frequency with which various sets of mental processes are “repressed.” One might in this connection venture the generalisation that those processes are most likely to be “repressed” by the individual which are most disapproved of by the particular circle of society to whose influence he bas chiefly been subjected. Biologically stated, this law would run: ”That which is inacceptable to the herd becomes inacceptable to the individual unit,” it being understood that the term herd is intended in the sense of the particular circle above defined, which is by no means necessarily the community at large. It is for this reason that moral, social, ethical or religious influences are hardly ever ”repressed,” for as the individual originally received them from his herd, they can never come into conflict with the dicta of the latter. This merely says that a man cannot be ashamed of that which he respects; the apparent exceptions to this need not here be explained. The contrary is equally true, namely that mental trends “repressed” by the individual are those least acceptable to his herd; they are, therefore, those which are, curiously enough, distinguished as “natural” instincts, as contrasted with secondarily acquired mental trends. It only remains to add the obvious corollary that, as the herd unquestionably selects from the “natural” instincts the sexual ones on which to lay its heaviest ban, so is it the various psycho-sexual trends that most often are “repressed” by the individual. We have here an explanation of the clinical experience that the more intense and the more obscure is a given case of deep mental conflict the more certainly will it be found, on adequate analysis, to centre about a sexual problem. On the surface, of course, this does not appear so, for, by means of various psychological defensive mechanisms, the depression, doubt, and other manifestations of the conflict are transferred on to more acceptable subjects, such as the problems of immortality, future of the world, salvation of the soul, and so on. Bearing these considerations in mind, let us return to Hamlet. It should now be evident that the conflict hypotheses above mentioned, which see Hamlet’s “natural” instinct for revenge inhibited by an unconscious misgiving of a highly ethical kind, are based on ignorance of what actually happens in real life, for misgivings of this kind are in fact readily accessible to introspection. Hamlet’s self-study would speedily have made him conscious of any such ethical misgivings, and although he might subsequently have ignored them, it would almost certainly have been by the aid of a process of rationalization which would have enabled him to deceive himself into believing that such misgivings were really ill founded; he would in any case have remained conscious of the nature of them. We must therefore invert these hypotheses, and realise that the positive striving for revenge was to him the moral and social one, and that the suppressed negative striving against revenge arose in some hidden source connected with his more personal, “natural” instincts. The former striving has already been considered, and indeed is manifest in every speech in which Hamlet debates the matter; the second is, from its nature, more obscure and has next to be investigated. This is perhaps most easily done by inquiring more intently into Hamlet’s precise attitude towards the object of his vengeance, Claudius, and towards the crimes that have to be avenged. These are two, Claudius’ incest with the Queen, and his murder of his brother. It is of great importance to note the fundamental difference in Hamlet’s attitude towards these two crimes. Intellectually of course he abhors both, but there can be no question as to which arouses in him the deeper loathing. Whereas the murder of his father evokes in him indignation, and a plain recognition of his obvious duty to avenge it, his mother’s guilty conduct awakes in him the intensest horror. Now, in trying to define Hamlet’s attitude towards his uncle we have to guard against assuming offhand that this is a simple one of mere execration, for there is a possibility of complexity arising in the following way: The uncle has not merely committed each crime, he has committed both crimes, a distinction of considerable importance, for the combination of crimes allows the admittance of a new factor, produced by the possible inter-relation of the two, which prevents the result from being simply one of summation. In addition it has to be borne in mind that the perpetrator of the crimes is a relative, and an exceedingly near relative. The possible inter-relation of the crimes, and the fact that the author of them is an actual member of the family on which they were perpetrated, gives scope for a confusion in their influence on Hamlet’s mind that may be the cause of the very obscurity we are seeking to clarify.

Introduction to “Ophelia’s Desire” by James Marino (2017)

Every great theory is founded on a problem it cannot solve. For psychoanalytic criticism, that problem is Ophelia. Sigmund Freud’s Oedipal reading of Hamlet , mutually constitutive with his reading of Oedipus Rex , initiates the project of Freudian literary interpretation. But that reading must, by its most basic logic, displace Ophelia and render her an anomaly. If the Queen is Hamlet’s primary erotic object, why does he have another love interest? Why such a specific and unusual love interest? The answer that Freud and his disciples offer is that Hamlet’s expressions of love or rage toward Ophelia are displace-ments of his cathexis on the queen. That argument is tautological—one might as easily say that Hamlet displaces his cathected frustration with Ophelia onto the Queen—and requires that some evidence from the text be ignored—“No, good mother,” Hamlet tells the Queen, “here’s metal more attractive”—but the idea of the Queen as Hamlet’s primary affective object remains a standard orthodoxy, common even in feminist Freudians’ readings of Hamlet . Janet Adelman’s Suffocating Mothers , for example, takes the mother-son dyad as central, while Julia Reinhard Lupton and Kenneth Reinhard highlight the symbolic condensation of Ophelia with the Queen. The argument for Ophelia as substitute object may reach its apotheosis in Jacques Lacan’s famous essay on Hamlet, which begins with “that piece of bait named Ophelia” only to use her as an example of Hamlet’s estrangement from his own desire. Margreta de Grazia’s “Hamlet” without Hamlet has illuminated how the romantic tradition of Hamlet criticism, from which Freud’s own Hamlet criticism derives, focuses on Hamlet’s psychology at the expense of the play’s other characters, who are reduced to figures in the Prince’s individual psychomachia. While psychoanalytic reading objectifies all of Hamlet ’s supporting characters, Ophelia is not even allowed to be an object in her own right. Insistently demoted to a secondary or surrogate object, Ophelia becomes mysteriously super-fluous, like a symptom unconnected from its cause. Ophelia is the foundational problem, the nagging flaw in psychoanalytic criticism’s cornerstone. The play becomes very different if Ophelia is decoupled from the Queen and read as an independent and structurally central character, as a primary object of desire, and even as a desiring subject in her own right. I do not mean to describe the character as a real person, with a fully human psychology; Ophelia is a fiction, constructed from intersecting and contradicting generic expectations. But in those generic terms Ophelia is startlingly unusual, indeed unique, in ways that psychoanalytic criticism has been reluctant to recognize. If stage characters become individuated to the extent that they deviate from established convention, acting against type, then Ophelia is one of William Shakespeare’s most richly individual heroines. And if Shakespeare creates the illusion of interiority, or invites his audience to collaborate in that illusion, by withholding easy explanations of motive, Ophelia’s inner life is rich with mystery. Attention to the elements of Ophelia’s character that psychoanalytic readings resist or repress illuminates the deeper fantasies shaping psychoanalytic discourse. The literary dreams underpinning psychoanalysis are neither simply to be debunked nor to be reconstituted, but to be analyzed. If, as the debates over psychoanalysis over the last three decades have shown, much of Freudian thinking is not science, then it is fantasy; and fantasy, as Freud himself teaches, rewards strict attention. Ophelia, rightly attended, may tell us something about Hamlet, and about Hamlet, that critics have not always wished to know. To see Ophelia clearly would also make it clear how closely Hamlet resembles her and how faithfully his tragic arc follows hers.

Beyond Freud: Applying Psychological Theories to Literary Texts

Fortunately, we are not limited to Freud when we engage in psychological criticism. We can choose any psychological theory. Here are just a few you might consider:

Carl Jung’s archetypes: humans have a collective unconscious that includes universal archetypes such as the shadow, the persona, and the anima/us.
B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism: all behaviors are learned through conditioning.
Jacques Lacan’s conception of the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic.
Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development: describes the effects of social development across a person’s lifespan.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development: explains how people develop moral reasoning.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: people’s basic needs need to be met before they can pursue more advanced emotional and intellectual needs.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ s five stages of grief: a framework for understanding loss.
Mamie Phipps Clark and Kenneth Bancroft Clark’s work on internalized racism.
Derald Wing Sue and David Sue’s work with Indigenous spiritual frameworks and mental health.

It’s important to differentiate this type of criticism from looking at “mental health” or considering how the poem affects our emotions. When we are exploring how a poem makes us feel, this is subjective reader response, not psychological criticism. Psychological criticism involves analyzing a literary work through the lens of a psychological theory, exploring characters’ motivations, behaviors, and the author’s psychological influences. Here are a few approaches you might take to apply psychological criticism to a text:

Psychological Theories: Familiarize yourself with the basics of key psychological theories, such as Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian archetypes, or cognitive psychology. This knowledge provides a foundation for interpreting characters and their actions. It’s best to choose one particular theory to use in your analysis.
Author’s Background: Research the author’s life and background. Explore how their personal experiences, relationships, and psychological state might have influenced the creation of characters or the overall themes of the text. Also consider what unconscious desires or fears might be present in the text. How can the text serve as a window to the author’s mind? The fictional novel Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell uses the text of Hamlet along with the few facts that are known about Shakespeare’s life to consider how the play could be read as an expression of the author’s grief at losing his 11-year-old son.
Character Analysis: Examine characters’ personalities, motivations, and conflicts. Consider how their experiences, desires, and fears influence their actions within the narrative. Look for signs of psychological trauma, defense mechanisms, or unconscious desires. You can see an example of this in the two literary articles above, where the authors consider Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s motivations and conflicts.
Symbolism and Imagery: Analyze symbols and imagery in the text. Understand how these elements may represent psychological concepts or emotions. For example, a recurring symbol might represent a character’s repressed desires or fears.
Themes and Motifs: Identify recurring themes and motifs. Explore how these elements reflect psychological concepts or theories. For instance, a theme of isolation might be analyzed in terms of its impact on characters’ mental states. An example of a motif in Hamlet would be the recurring ghost.
Archetypal Analysis: Jungian analysis is one of my personal favorite approaches to take to texts. You can apply archetypal psychology to identify universal symbols or patterns in characters. Carl Jung’s archetypes , such as the persona, shadow, or anima/animus, can provide insights into the deeper layers of character development.
Psychological Trajectories: Trace the psychological development of characters throughout the narrative. Identify key moments or events that shape their personalities and behaviors. Consider how these trajectories contribute to the overall psychological impact of the text.
Psychoanalytic Concepts: If relevant, apply psychoanalytic concepts such as id, ego, and superego . Explore how characters navigate internal conflicts or succumb to unconscious desires. Freudian analysis can uncover hidden motivations and tensions.

Because psychological criticism involves interpretation, there may be multiple valid perspectives on a single text. When using this critical method, I recommend focusing on a single psychological approach (e.g. choose Freud or Jung; don’t try to do both).

Let’s practice with Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass,” using Freud’s psychoanalytic theories as our psychological approach. Read the poem first, then use the questions below to guide your interpretation of the poem.

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass* (1865)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Manuscript of "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" from the Morgan Library

A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides: You may have met him, —did you not, His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen; And then it closes at your feet And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre. A floor too cool for corn. Yet when a child, and barefoot, I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash Unbraiding in the Sun.— When, stooping to secure it, It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature’s people I know, and they know me; I feel for them a transport Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.

*I’ve used the “corrected” version published in 1865. Here is a link to the transcribed version from the original manuscript.

Here are a few questions to consider as you apply Freudian psychoanalysis to the poem.

Imagery and Motifs: This poem is one of just 10 Emily Dickinson poems published during her lifetime. The editor chose a different title for the poem: “The Snake” . How does adding this title change the reader’s experience with the poem? Which words in the poem seem odd in the context of this title? In a Freudian reading of the poem, what would the snake (if it is a snake) represent?
Repression and Symbolism: How might the “narrow Fellow in the Grass” symbolize repressed desires or memories in the speaker’s subconscious? What elements in the poem suggest a hidden, perhaps uncomfortable, aspect of the speaker’s psyche?
Penis Envy: In Freudian theory, penis envy refers to a girl’s desire for male genitalia. How does this concept apply to the poem? Dickinson’s handwritten version of the poem says “boy” instead of “child” in line 11. How does this change impact how we read the poem?
Unconscious Fears and Anxiety (Zero at the Bone): The closing lines mention a “tighter Breathing” and feeling “Zero at the Bone.” How can Freud’s ideas about the unconscious and anxiety be applied here? What might the encounter with the Fellow reveal about the speaker’s hidden fears or anxieties, and how does it impact the speaker on a deep, unconscious level?
Punctuation: The manuscript versions of this poem do not use normal punctuation conventions. Instead, the author uses a dash. How does this change our reading of the poem? What does her use of dashes imply about her psychological state?

As with New Historicism, you’ll need to do some research and cite a source for the psychological theory you apply. Introduce the psychological theory, then use it to analyze the poem. Make sure to support your analysis with specific textual evidence from the poem. Use line numbers to refer to specific parts of the text.

You’ll want to come up with a thesis statement that you can support with the evidence you’ve found.

Freudian Analysis Thesis Statement: In Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Narrow Fellow in the Grass,” the encounter with a snake serves as a symbolic manifestation of repressed desires, unconscious fears, and penis envy, offering a Freudian exploration of the complex interplay between the conscious and unconscious mind.

How would this thesis statement be different if you had chosen a different approach–for example, Erik Erikson’s theory of child development? How does this analysis differ from a New Criticism approach? Do you think that a Freudian approach is useful in helping readers to appreciate this poem?

The Limitations of Psychological Criticism

While psychological criticism provides valuable insights into the human psyche and enriches our understanding of literary works, it also has its limitations. Here are a few:

Subjectivity: Psychological interpretations often rely on subjective analysis, as different readers may perceive and interpret psychological elements in a text differently. The lack of objective criteria can make it challenging to establish a universally accepted interpretation. However, using an established psychological theory can help to address this concern.
Authorial Intent: Inferring an author’s psychological state or intentions based on their work can be speculative. Without direct evidence from the author about their psychological motivations, interpretations may be subjective and open to debate.
Overemphasis on Individual Psychology: Psychological criticism may focus heavily on individual psychology and neglect broader social, cultural, or historical contexts that also influence literature. This narrow focus may oversimplify the complexity of human experience.
Stereotyping Characters: Applying psychological theories to characters may lead to oversimplified or stereotypical portrayals. Characters might be reduced to representing specific psychological concepts, overlooking their multifaceted nature. Consider the scholarly readings above and how Ophelia has traditionally been read as an accessory to Hamlet rather than as a fully developed character in her own right.
Neglect of Formal Elements: Psychological criticism may sometimes neglect formal elements of a text, such as structure, style, and language, in favor of exploring psychological aspects. This oversight can limit a comprehensive understanding of the literary work.
Inconsistency in Psychoanalytic Theories: Different psychoanalytic theories exist, and scholars may apply competing frameworks, leading to inconsistent interpretations. For example, a Freudian interpretation may differ significantly from a Jungian analysis.
Exclusion of Reader Response: While psychological criticism often explores the author’s psyche, it may not give sufficient attention to the diverse psychological responses of readers. The reader’s own psychology and experiences contribute to the meaning derived from a text. In formal literary criticism, as we noted above, this type of approach is considered to be subjective reader response, but it might be an interesting area of inquiry that is traditionally excluded from psychological criticism approaches.
Neglect of Positive Aspects: Psychological criticism may sometimes focus too much on negative or pathological aspects of characters, overlooking positive psychological dimensions and the potential for growth and redemption within the narrative (we care a lot more about what’s wrong with Hamlet than what’s right with him).

Acknowledging these limitations helps balance the use of psychological criticism with other literary approaches, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of a literary work.

Psychological Criticism Scholars

There is considerable overlap in psychological criticism scholarship. With this type of approach, some psychologists/psychiatrists use literary texts to demonstrate or explicate psychological theories, while some literary scholars use psychological theories to interpret works. Here are a few better-known literary scholars who practice this type of criticism:

Sigmund Freud, who used Greek literature to develop his theories about the psyche
Carl Jung, whose ideas of the archetypes are fascinating
Alfred Adler, a student of Freud’s who particularly focused on literature and psychoanalysis
Jacques Lacan, a French psychoanalyst whose ideas of the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic provide interesting insights into literary texts.

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Literary Research: Psychoanalytic Criticism

What is psychoanalytic criticism.

"According to psychoanalytic criticism, readers can reach more insightful conclusions by considering the subconscious motivations of fictional characters and of the authors of texts. Psychoanalytic criticism also urges readers to consider how environmental factors impact characters and their development. Likewise, practitioners believe that certain texts have the potential to impact the reader on a psychological level, sometimes satisfying significant emotional and intellectual needs."

Brief Overviews:

Psychoanalytic criticism (A Dictionary of Critical Theory)
Psychoanalytic Theory and Criticism (The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism)
Psychoanalysis and Literature (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism)

Major Figures

Sigmund Freud

The Freud Reader (various editions)
Meisel, Perry. The Literary Freud . Routledge, 2007.
The Essential Jung . Princeton University Press, 1983.
Rowland, Susan. Jungian Literary Criticism: the Essential Guide . Routledge, 2019.

Sugg, Richard P. Jungian Literary Criticism . Northwestern University Press, 1992.

Melanie Klein

The Selected Melanie Klein . Free Press, 1987.
Essential Readings from the Melanie Klein Archives: Original Papers and Critical Reflections . Edited by Jane Milton, Routledge, 2020.

Jacques Lacan

Écrits (various editions)

Murray, Martin. Jacques Lacan: A Critical Introduction . Pluto Press, 2015.

Introductions & Anthologies

Find more books on Psychoanalysis and literature and psychoanalytic interpretation of literature at UW Libraries.

Definition: "psychoanalytic criticism." The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature. Eds. Hart, James D., Wendy Martin, and Danielle Hinrichs. Oxford University Press, 2021.

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psychoanalytic criticism

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A form of literary interpretation that employs the terms of psychoanalysis (the unconscious, repression, the Oedipus complex, etc.) in order to illuminate aspects of literature in its connection with conflicting psychological states. The beginnings of this modern tradition are found in Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), which provides a method of interpreting apparently unimportant details of narratives as ‘displacements’ of repressed wishes or anxieties. Freud often acknowledged his debts to the poets, and his theory of the Oedipus complex is itself a sort of commentary upon Sophocles' drama. Ambitious interpretations of literary works as symptoms betraying the authors' neuroses are found in ‘psychobiographies’ of writers, such as Marie Bonaparte's Edgar Poe (1933), which diagnoses sadistic necrophilia as the problem underlying Poe's tales. A more sophisticated study in this vein is E. Wilson's The Wound and the Bow (1941). As Trilling and others have objected, this approach risks reducing art to pathology.

More profitable are analyses of fictional characters, beginning with Freud's own suggestions about Prince Hamlet, later developed by his British disciple Ernest Jones: Hamlet feels unable to kill his uncle because Claudius's crimes embody his own repressed incestuous and patricidal wishes, in a perfect illustration of the Oedipus complex. A comparable exercise is Wilson's essay ‘The Ambiguity of Henry James’ (1934), which interprets the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw as imaginary projections of the governess's repressed sexual desires. A third possible object of analysis, after the author and the fictional protagonist, is the readership. Here the question is why certain kinds of story have such a powerful appeal to us, and numerous answers have been given in Freudian terms, usually focusing on the overcoming of fears (as in Gothic fiction) or the resolution of conflicting desires (as in comedy and romance).

Although Freud's writings are the most influential, some interpretations employ the concepts of heretical psychoanalysts, notably Adler, Jung, and Klein. Since the 1970s, the theories of Jacques Lacan (1901–81) have inspired a new school of psychoanalytic critics who illustrate the laws of ‘desire’ through a focus upon the language of literary texts. The advent of post‐structuralism has tended to cast doubt upon the authority of the psychoanalytic critic who claims to unveil a true ‘latent’ meaning behind the disguises of a text's ‘manifest’ contents. The subtler forms of psychoanalytic criticism make allowance for ambiguous and contradictory significances, rather than merely discovering hidden sexual symbolism in literary works.

From: psychoanalytic criticism in The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature »

Subjects: Literature

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Psychoanalytic Theory & Criticism

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This is “Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: An Overview”, section 3.2 from the book Creating Literary Analysis (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here .

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3.2 Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: An Overview

“Do I wake or sleep?” Keats’s question is perplexing, one we have probably asked ourselves. For our dreams often seem as real as our waking life. We dream, we wake, and we try to recollect our dream, which somehow seems to tell us something that we should know. We may tell friends our dreams, especially those strange ones that haunt our imagination, and they may venture an interpretation for us by reading our dream. Dreams are stories of our mind, albeit often bewildering narratives in need of interpretation.

Your Process

Keep a dream journal for a least one week, jotting down those dreams that you can remember most vividly.
Take one of your dreams and analyze it like a story: What is the plot? Who are the characters? What symbols seem to be operating in the dream-story?
Now try to understand your dream: What might be the theme of your dream-story?

Psychoanalytical literary criticism, on one level, concerns itself with dreams, for dreams are a reflection of the unconscious psychological states of dreamers. Freud, for example, contends that dreams are “the guardians of sleep” where they become “disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes.” Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams in The Freud Reader , ed. Peter Gay, (New York: Norton, 1989). To Freud, dreams are the “royal road” to the personal unconscious of the dreamer and have a direct relation to literature, which often has the structure of a dream. Jacques Lacan, a disciple of Freud, was influenced by Freud’s psychoanalytical theories and contended that dreams mirrored our unconscious and reflected the way we use language; dreams, therefore, operate like language, having their own rhetorical qualities. Another Freud disciple, Carl Jung, eventually rejected Freud’s theory that dreams are manifestations of the personal unconsciousness, claiming, instead, that they reflect archetypes that tap into the “collective unconsciousness” of all humanity. Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams in The Freud Reader , ed. Peter Gay, (New York: Norton, 1989).

In this chapter, we explore three popular psychoanalytical approaches for interpreting literature—Freudian, Lacanian, and Jungian. In general, there are four ways to focus a psychoanalytical interpretation:

You can analyze the author’s life.
You can analyze the thematic content of the work, especially the motivations of characters and the narrator(s).
You can analyze the artistic construction of a text.
You can analyze yourself or the reader of the literary work using reader-response theory, which we examine in detail in Chapter 6 "Writing about Readers: Applying Reader-Response Theory" .

Here is a quick overview of some psychoanalytical interpretations that demonstrate these approaches.

Analyze the Author’s Life

In The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe (1933), Marie Bonaparte psychoanalyzes Poe, concluding that his fiction and poetry are driven by his desire to be reunited with his dead mother (she died when he was three). Marie Bonaparte, The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe (London: Image Publishing, 1949). This desire leaves him symbolically castrated, unable to have normal relationships with others (primarily women). Bonaparte analyzes Poe’s stories from this perspective, reading them as dreams reflecting Poe’s repressed desires for his mother. While such an interpretation is fascinating—and can be quite useful—you probably won’t attempt to get into the mind of the author for a short paper. But you will find, however, that examining the life of an author can be a fruitful enterprise, for there may be details from an author’s life that might become useful evidence in your paper.

You can find out about Poe at the Poe Museum’s website ( http://www.poemuseum.org/index.php ).

Analyze the Thematic Content: The Motivations of Characters and the Narrator(s)

An example showing a psychoanalytic focus on literary characters is Frederick Crews’s reading in The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne’s Psychological Themes (1966). Frederick Crews, The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne’s Psychological Themes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989). Crews first provides a psychoanalytical reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life: he sees reflected in Hawthorne’s characters a thwarted Oedipus complex (no worries, we’ll define that a bit later), which creates repression. Furthermore, Hawthorne’s ties to the Puritan past engenders his work with a profound sense of guilt, further repressing characters. Crews reads “The Birthmark,” for example, as a tale of sexual repression. Crews’s study is a model for psychoanalyzing characters in fiction and remains a powerful and persuasive interpretation.

You can read “The Birthmark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Birthmark,” in The Complete Novels and Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne , Modern Library ed., ed. Norman Holmes Pearson (New York: Random House, 1937; University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, 1996), http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/HawBirt.html . which will become the story of choice for the three student sample papers in this chapter, at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/HawBirt.html .

Analyze the Artistic Construction

Jacques Lacan shows us how a psychoanalytical reading can focus on the formal, artistic construction of a literary text. In other words, Lacan believes that our unconscious is “structured like a language” and that a literary text mirrors this sense of the unconscious. In “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter’” (you can access the essay at http://www.lacan.com/purloined.htm ), Lacan argues that Edgar Allan Poe’s tale is not necessarily about the meaning of the message in the stolen letter; rather, the tale is about who controls the letter, who has power over the language contained in the letter. Jacques Lacan, “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter,’” Lacan.com, http://www.lacan.com/purloined.htm . You can read “The Purloined Letter” Edgar Allan Poe, “The Purloined Letter,” in Tales of Mystery and Imagination (London: J. M. Dent, 1912; University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center, 1994), http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoePurl.html . at http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PoePurl.html .

Analyze the Reader

Finally, a psychoanalytical reading can examine the reader and how a literary work is interpreted according to the psychological needs of the reader. We examine this approach in detail in Chapter 6 "Writing about Readers: Applying Reader-Response Theory" on reader-response criticism.

Choose three authors and/or literary works that you think might be fruitful for applying the first three psychoanalytical approaches (remember, we’ll learn about the fourth approach in reader-response theory).
Now jot down two reasons why you think your author and/or work might work well with these theories.
Keep this material, for you may have already developed an idea for your paper, which you’ll be ready to write after reading the rest of this chapter.

Getting into character: On psychoanalysis and literature in the classroom

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Published: 01 June 2022
Volume 27 , pages 386–390, ( 2022 )

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This article reflects on literary criticism’s longstanding disciplinary aversion to psychoanalytic character study, using personal experience to rethink the value of this method in the undergraduate classroom.

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I have in mind here the early work of Harold Bloom and Frederick Crews as representative examples of the psycho-biographical and content-focused psychoanalytic literary scholarship from 1970s and Shoshana Felman, Peter Brooks, Barbara Johnson, Leo Bersani, and Jane Gallop as some of the more well-known Lacanian (and often Derridian) affiliates from the 1980s. For further accounts of the relationship between literary theory and psychoanalysis, see Terry Eagleton’s canonical Literary Theory: An Introduction and Maud Ellman’s edited collection Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism .

Eagleton, T. (1983). Literary theory: An introduction . Blackwell Publishers.

Google Scholar

Ellman, M. (Ed.). (1994). Psychoanalytic literary criticism . Longman Group.

Felman, S. (1982). To open the question. In S. Felman (Ed.), Literature and psychoanalysis: The question of reading: Otherwise (pp. 5–10). Johns Hopkins University Press.

Moi, T. (2020, January 28). Real characters: Literary criticism and the existential turn. The Point Magazine, Vol. 21. https://thepointmag.com/criticism/real-characters-literary-criticism-existential-turn-toril-moi/

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Laubender, C. Getting into character: On psychoanalysis and literature in the classroom. Psychoanal Cult Soc 27 , 386–390 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-022-00300-5

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12 Questions about Psychoanalysis

I – As a philosopher, what is it that interests you in psychoanalysis, and why?

II – What is the most significant contribution that philosophy has made to psychoanalysis, at least from your personal approach to psychoanalysis?

III – Apart from Freud, what other psychoanalyst, according to you, has contributed significantly to a philosophical reflection on psychoanalysis?

IV – If you have undertaken psychoanalytic training, or if you are a practicing psychoanalyst, might we ask how you view what transpires in a clinical analytic practice? In other words, what is it that really happens during a cure?

V – Nietzsche and Freud. Freud admitted having never really read Nietzsche, because he feared discovering that Nietzsche had already said everything essential that Freud himself thought he had said. How do you view the relation between Freud and Nietzsche?

VI – From its start, psychoanalysis—including Fenichel, Bernfeld, Reich, Fromm, and others—developed a Freudian-Marxist current among both analysts and philosophers, which still flourishes today. How should we view today the relation amongst Marx, Marxists, and psychoanalysis?

VII – Do you believe that psychoanalysis can be a useful tool for interpreting political and social phenomena and customs today? And especially for interpreting gender issues and sexual orientations debate? And if yes, in what way?

VIII – A part of philosophical phenomenology has dealt with psychoanalysis. Even those in Heidegger’s and hermeneutics’ wake have often theorized on psychoanalysis. How do you feel about this phenomenological “appropriation” of psychoanalysis?

IX – Starting with Popper, over the past decades a trend of radical criticism of psychoanalysis has developed that denies its scientific plausibility, comparing it to a mythology, and contesting any validity of the analytic practice. Where do you fit in this debate, if you do at all?

X – Do you find it important that psychoanalysis today confronts itself with biological knowledge (evolutionary sciences, neuroscience), and with science in general?

XI – Today, psychoanalysis compares itself with rival psychotherapies and theories—behavioral and/or cognitive psychotherapy, systemic-relational psychotherapy, and an assortment of other types of cures. Where do you situate psychoanalysis in all of this? And in particular, can we say that psychoanalysis is a psychotherapy, and if it is, in what sense?

XII – Many philosophers are particularly interested in the thought of Jacques Lacan. What value or meaning do you attribute to the Lacanian après-coup ?

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100 Psychoanalysis Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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English 333

Tianna Tatum-Fisher

Psychoanalytic Criticism

“ The goal of psychoanalysis is to help us resolve our psychological problems…, by focusing on patterns of behavior that are destructive in some way…in the existence of the unconscious…the storehouse of painful experiences and emotions and unresolved conflicts that we are overwhelmed by (Tyson 12)”.

Description of Theory:

Psychoanalytic Criticism calls for the understanding of the unconscious, the repressed mind in order to understand the human life experience, culture, language, and ultimately, society because the text, to critics, can only be analyzed as if it’s a dream. In text this theory argues that because literature are much like dreams the text represents the author’s unconscious desires, fears, anxieties, and traumas, and therefore through the text the author deals with his or her own psychosis.

Theory Benefit:

Outside of knowing of the author’s life to understand the text, psychologically, readers can also understand the character/s’ mind by what they go through within the story, especially if they have psychological problems.

Theory Disadvantage:

Theorists tend to ask questions that relate to the author’s past and the mind state of the reader when interpreting the text which poses problems if the reader’s state of mind is in the positive or negative of what the author’s state of mind was or the condition of what the story is.

Questions of Psychoanalytic Theorists to Interpret a Text:

Through understanding the text’s author and characters readers can begin to understand their own psyche and how it plays out in society.

How do operations of repression structure the world of the text? What repressed desires/wounds lie underneath?
Where are there oedipal (family/sexual) dynamics? Where are the patterns in behaviors in the character/s?
Can character’s behavior/motivation be explained psychologically? Is this behavior a product of the culture it’s around?
What dreamlike symbols can be identified? Are there any phallic symbols?
What do these repressed symbols/desires/ fears suggest about the author?

Notable Theorist/s:

Sigmund Freud established the namesake of “the unconscious”. He is often associated with the phallic symbols of dreams, the oedipal (family) complexes as he was deeply misogynistic and heavily focused on the male and mother bond, and what is known as Freudian slips to reveal unconscious desires. His work was often to psychoanalyze the author through their works by uncovering what they are repressing which later created the triad model of the mind: the Id (pleasure), the irrational unconscious (secret desires, darkest wishes, and intense fears), the Superego (morality), the internalization of cultural and societal taboos, and the Ego (reality), the rational, logical, and most conscious part of mind.

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What is Psychoanalytic Criticism in Literature

The relationship between freud’s theory and literary criticism, freud’s psychoanalytic explorations, freud’s tripartite model a and psychoanalytic criticism, 3. superego, role of dreams in freud’s theory, freud’s work in the eyes of critics, psychoanalysis criticism- freudian vs. jungian, concept of unconscious, concept of dream, bottom line.

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Reading Macbeth with psychoanalytic theory

It’s probably fair to say that there’s more than enough literary criticism written on Macbeth , but among the plethora of Macbeth lit crit I’ve come across, I’ve noticed two dominant critical approaches to reading the play, which are historicism and feminism.

Wait – what’s a ‘critical approach’?

Broadly speaking, ‘critical approaches’ in literature are different ways for us to read, interpret and analyse a text.

For instance, if we choose to read a novel from a feministic angle, we would be primarily concerned with how female interests, rights and desires are portrayed in the book.

Alternatively, if we read a play from a historicist perspective, we would be looking at how the historical events and social dynamics that surrounded the author influenced the production of her text.

Besides historicist and feminist, there are many other critical approaches, from Marxist to psychoanalytic to post-Structuralist to deconstructivist to postcolonial to environmental (‘ Ecocriticism ’) – and more. To most people, this probably all sounds a bit hilarious, or baffling – or both.

Most likely both.

And of course, there’s the option to not adopt any ‘approach’, but to simply engage with a text ‘as is’ by looking only at its language, form and content. It’s called a ‘textualist’ or ‘essentialist’ approach – ‘ Practical Criticism ’ and ‘close reading’ are examples of this (which I use quite often, especially in my poetry analysis, which you can check out here ).

Why Macbeth makes sense for historicist and feminist criticism

But back to Macbeth: There are clear reasons for why the play is ripe for historicist and feminist interpretation.

First, it was written at the cusp of a significant political transition: after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, James I, a Scotsman, succeeded Queen Bess, effectively putting an end to a matriarchy which had lasted for almost half a century. Second, despite being named after its male protagonist, Macbeth is a play in which female characters arguably hold the most power.

Given our awareness of Liz I’s looming legacy at the time of Shakespeare’s writing of Macbeth , the historical and feministic intersections of the play should become all the more apparent.

What if we were to read Macbeth from another angle…?

The purpose of this post, however, is to move away from the more dominant critical narratives around Macbeth . Specifically, I’m choosing to read the play through the lens of psychoanalytic theory.

As an interdisciplinary field crossing psychology, pathology, history and culture, psychoanalytic studies is an entire beast on its own.

In a nutshell, though, psychoanalytic literary theory is concerned with looking at patterns of ‘unconscious’ desire in a text.

The ‘unconscious’ – a core Freudian term – is the part of our mind where all repressed thoughts are stored. These thoughts are repressed because they are, according to Freud, perverse by standards of civilisation (e.g. incestuous desires), but while we stash them away in our mental recesses, they never really go away, instead seeking expression through various forms in everyday life (e.g. dreams, sexual innuendoes, jokes, slips of the tongue – hence the term ‘Freudian slip’)

A classic Shakespearean text for psychoanalytic studies is Hamlet , specifically regarding the ‘ Oedipus Complex ’ (the theory that sons are, on a subconscious level, sexually attracted to their mothers, and in turn, wish to supplant the father).

This pattern of desire is evident in the Prince’s conflicted emotions towards his mother, Queen Gertrude, and his marked hatred for his stepfather, King Claudius.

But Macbeth could also be viewed as the tragedy of a man with an intensely repressed ‘unconscious’, which I’ll go on to illustrate through the following ideas:

Key idea 1: The ‘unconscious’ as a harbinger of danger

Key idea 2: The Witches and Lady Macbeth as ‘surrogate mothers’ to Macbeth

Key idea 3: the ‘death drive’ as an inescapable compulsion.

For a lucid overview of psychoanalytic criticism, you can check out Purdue’s page here .

Or watch me explain it all in the video below:

Key idea 1: The unconscious as a harbinger of danger

macbeth freud psychoanalysis the unconscious

One of the central tenets in Freudian psychoanalysis is that dreams are a reflection of our unconscious desires.

Whatever thoughts and feelings we’ve repressed during the day, Freud posits, they will eventually seek an outlet elsewhere, one such being our dreams at night, when our truest, most private selves come peeping out from under the sheets.

For ordinary people, dreams may be a cause of mild embarrassment (at times intense shame), as we are forcibly ‘reminded’ of our crush on a friend’s wife / husband, or of our less-than-civilised wish to throttle a cruel boss. But most people would never act on these unconscious ‘cues’ in real life.

In Macbeth , however, the protagonist does act on his unconscious, and there’s an argument to be made that his actions aren’t so much driven by his own volition as they are by his inability to control the subterranean mind.

Early on in the play, Banquo introduces the notion of dreams as an omen, when he tells Macbeth after their encounter with the Three Witches on the heath –

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters; To you they have show’d some truth. (2.1)

The key word here is “some” – why “ some truth”, as opposed to just “truth”? If we recall, the witches prophecy in Act 1 Scene 3 that Macbeth will become king, as will Banquo’s issue.

But what they don’t reveal is how these prophecies will materialise (through legitimate or illegitimate means), or how long Macbeth’s kingship would last (not very long). This begs the question of whether Banquo has dreamt the other, more sinister part of the “truth”, but is here not relaying it to Macbeth.

If we consider Banquo’s later suspicions of Macbeth’s culpability (“I fear,/Thou play’dst most foully for’t”, 3.1), for which the play doesn’t ever provide a clear reason, then this ‘dream’ he alludes to could be viewed as an early warning that he’s received about what Macbeth would do.

Macbeth’s unconscious, on the other hand, first manifests through his hallucination of the dagger in Act 2 Scene 1, which happens right before he ‘does the deed’ of murdering Duncan in his bedchamber.

Why does Shakespeare have Macbeth imagine the weapon before carrying out the deadly act?

One possible reason is that he’s showing Macbeth to be a victim of his ‘unconscious’, and by extension, suggesting that our free will is often constrained by a more powerful force – our unregistered desires. Note that in Macbeth’s dagger hallucination soliloquy, he begins with a string of questions about the genesis of the dagger vision. Where does it come from, he asks, because his rational self isn’t what’s summoned it forth –

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

There’s a touch of the Freudian in the coinage of “heat-oppressed”, if we understand “heat” to connote desire, and “oppressed” to indicate repression.

The implication is that while Macbeth wishes to murder Duncan so he can usurp the Scottish throne, he has been suppressing this wish, and he’s not sure how much longer he can keep his unconscious kettle from boiling over.

The imagery of “the mind” and “brain” underscores that the cognitive function is the dominant faculty directing his actions, but it turns out the organ which supposedly enables rational thought is also one that houses illicit desires – some of which the individual may not even be aware of.

The notion that Macbeth is spurred on by his unconscious is further reinforced by the reference to “wicked dreams” later in this same speech, after he acknowledges that the dagger is, in fact, a hallucinatory product of his inner desires –

Now o’er the one halfworld Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain’d sleep;…

Slumber, as peaceful as the act may seem, is portrayed instead to be a dangerous thing: “The one halfworld” that is asleep “seem[s] dead”, and the association of sleep and death characterises slumber as a morbid act. Dreams are personified as a “wicked” agent who “abuse[s]” the metaphorised “curtain’d sleep”, but of course it isn’t the dreams themselves that are wicked, but the ingredients of those dreams, which in the Freudian view stems from our unconscious.

In Macbeth’s case, because his unconscious contains such transgressive desires as regicidal usurpation, his dreams become a nightly haunt from which he can’t escape (especially since all it takes to disturb sleep is a lifting of the ‘curtain’), as they steadily push him towards the ‘wish fulfilment’ of realising his “vaulting ambition”.

One of the more evident patterns in the play is its fascination with the maternal instinct. For a character who is so obsessed with power, Macbeth is rather powerless in the face of the women around him.

A possible interpretation for this is that he views them as surrogate ‘mothers’ who yield a natural authority over him. There’s a discernible pattern of female control throughout the play, beginning with the Witches’ damning prophecy in Act 1, which is then activated by Lady Macbeth’s prodding of her husband in Act 2. Later, when Macbeth loses his sanity at the sight of Banquo’s ghost, he seeks help and counsel from none other than his wife and the Witches.

There’s a sense that the women in his life function as his ‘surrogate mothers’, to whom he turns for guidance at points of desperation, even though these ‘mothers’ act against type, being not protective and nurturing, but instead destructive and dismissive.

Indeed, he is ultimately undone by a single-minded misunderstanding about the most biological aspect of motherhood – he doesn’t realise that mothers can give birth in more ways than one, and is therefore defeated by Macduff, who was “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb, rather than being “of woman born” in the natural way.

In the Macbeths’ exchange about the Witches’ prophecy, their conversational cadence resembles more like the sort we’d hear from a mother-and-son dialogue, rather than a husband-and-wife one. Upon Macbeth’s arrival at their castle with news of the King’s visit that night (“Duncan comes here tonight”, 1.5), Lady Macbeth is the one who directs the course of their conversation, specifically with her sharp, insistent questions –

MACBETH My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night. LADY MACBETH And when goes hence? MACBETH To-morrow, as he purposes. And shortly after, when Duncan has dined at the Macbeths’ castle LADY MACBETH He has almost supp’d: why have you left the chamber? MACBETH Hath he ask’d for me? LADY MACBETH Know you not he has?

The interrogative tone of Lady Macbeth’s questions cast her in a matriarchal stance, as she asserts the sort of steely forcefulness that often seems like a mother’s prerogative.

Interestingly, Macbeth is comfortable with this dynamic; indeed, he seems to need his wife’s verbal cues to know what his next steps are. He allows his wife to ‘emasculate’ him, as it were, by probing at his manhood and berating him for showing weakness, but instead of fighting back, he absorbs it all as a respectful son would the harsh but honest words of a mother.

When Lady Macbeth cries for the “spirits… [to] come to my woman’s breasts/And take my milk for gall”, we see that her self-perception is fundamentally maternal – even with the replacement of milk for bitterness, her role remains a giver of guidance and momentum, but in her case it is directed not towards a son, but to her husband.

Likewise, Macbeth’s behaviour in front of the witches reminds one of a guileless, impatient child who struggles with ambiguities. To him, their words aren’t just supernatural prophecy; they are psychological sustenance that, at least for the dramatic life of the play, keeps him going with a definite sense of purpose.

Instead of waiting for the prophecy to take its course and manifest in time, Macbeth rushes to fulfil the witches’ words as a filial son does to live up to a mother’s expectations (this pattern is also applicable to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship). Note that in Macbeth’s communication with the witches, he’s always begging them to give him answers, like a child thirsting for knowledge from a worldly-wise adult –

Speak, if you can: what are you?

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:

or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

I conjure you, by that which you profess, Howe’er you come to know it, answer me:

Even till destruction sicken; answer me To what I ask you.

“Speak”, “stay”, “tell me more”, “why”, “answer me”: these imperatives betray the childlike essence of Macbeth, which makes his pursuit of authority rather ironic.

What’s interesting is that there’s also a hint of the maternal in the witches’ demeanour, as they relay half-truths to Macbeth in the same way that mothers don’t always tell their children the entire truth about things (except mothers do it to protect, whereas the witches do it to mislead).

This recalls our earlier point about Banquo’s statement on “to you they have show’d some truth”, as well as the apparitions’ cloaked ‘truths’ about no man “of woman born” being able to harm Macbeth (phrased in such a way that makes Macbeth ignore the possibility of Macduff being a product of caesarean birth – “from his mother’s womb/Untimely ripped”), and about Macbeth never being “vanquish’d… until/Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him” (but Malcolm and Macduff’s retinue will eventually uproot the trees of Birnam wood in their march towards Dunsinane).

So, the witches’ withholding of ‘truths’ is a perversion of the maternal instinct, because while mothers tell their sons half-truths out of a protective desire to shield their child from harm, the Witches push Macbeth towards his demise with every new ‘revelation’ they give, “palter[ing] with [him] in a double sense” (5.8).

From this angle, Shakespeare seems to problematise the sort of mother-son dynamic that’s misplaced from the biological to the relational realm: if a man gives in to the temptations of seeing women as substitute mothers or sources of maternal instruction, he gives up his critical thinking and judgment, and in Macbeth’s case, makes the wrong choices and ends up sabotaging himself.

macbeth freud psychoanalysis death drive compulsion

In his seminal essay ‘The Uncanny’, Freud posits that humans have a tendency to behave in self-destructive ways.

While this seems to contradict the ‘ pleasure principle ’, which states that all actions are carried out for pleasure (sexual in essence, but rechanneled into other forms after civilised conditioning), it does manifest in the many acts of self-harm that we continue to see in the world – suicide being the most extreme example.

Freud calls this the ‘death drive’, and it’s a ‘drive’ because we are urged to repeat such patterns of self-destruction, despite knowing that they are bad for us in the conventional sense.

Macbeth, in fact, is a good example of this ‘death drive’, as he largely initiates most of the circumstances which eventually lead to his defeat and demise.

For instance, he knows that the Witches are dubious creatures he should not trust (he calls them “secret, black, and midnight hags” in the apparition scene), but he actively seeks them out in Act 4 Scene 1 for clarification and validation of the prophecy, thereby repeating the self-destructive occasion for him to fall even deeper into his murderous, power-grabbing rampage.

This compulsion is reflected in the repetitive speech patterns of Macbeth’s exchange with the Witches – both in Macbeth’s insistent imperatives of “answer me” and “tell me” (“Howe’er you come to know it, answer me:”, “Even till destruction sicken; answer me/To what I ask you”, “Tell me, thou unknown power”, “tell me, if your art/Can tell so much”), and in the Witches’ strings of tricolonic echoes (“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!”, “Show! Show! Show!”).

Repetition, then, is dramatised as a metonymy for danger, as every replicated cry edges the protagonist towards the precipice of sanity.

Another strain of compulsive behaviour that manifests Macbeth’s ‘death drive’ is his need to kill. Having murdered Duncan, he technically assumes the throne and achieves his goal, but the haunting spectre of the Witches’ prophecy about Banquo’s issue and the apparition’s warning about Macduff trigger Macbeth’s desire for other murders, specifically those of Banquo and Macduff’s entire families.

The irony , of course, is that by initiating the killing of others, Macbeth is ‘driven’, as it were, towards his own death with every new death he’s responsible for, as the dramatic arc below shows:

Act 2 – Macbeth murders Duncan

Act 3 – Macbeth orders the murder of Banquo and Fleance

Act 4 – Macbeth orders the murder of Macduff’s family

Act 5 – Macbeth is murdered

It’s perhaps worth noting, then, that Macbeth nears the end of his life with the famed “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” lament, which symbolically aligns the motif of repetitiveness and compulsion with the notion of life’s death-driving monotony.

So it appears that these instances of death are not just indications of Macbeth’s violence, but more importantly, they are mirrors of the tragic hero’s self-destructive nature, which of course, compounds the tragedy of it all.

Check out my other Macbeth blog posts and videos below:

How to ace any Shakespeare extract question – violence in Macbeth
Analysing the supernatural in Macbeth – 3 key ideas
Analysing ambition in Macbeth – 3 key ideas
“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” key quote analysis (VIDEO)
“Multitudinous seas incarnadine” key quote analysis (VIDEO)
“Out, damned spot, out” key quote analysis (VIDEO)

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2 thoughts on “ Reading Macbeth with psychoanalytic theory ”

It amazes me how we all interpret a text in our own authentic ways! Reading this interpretation was truly refreshing and I admire the way you articulated your ideas in a concise and engaging way, Jen. Would love to see more ‘Macbeth’-related content!

Like Liked by 1 person

Thanks so much! I appreciate your note, and yes, will definitely be posting more ‘Macbeth’ content soon. Let me know if there are specific topics you’d like to see.

NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism

David Folkenflik

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument. Uri Berliner hide caption

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner for five days without pay after he wrote an essay accusing the network of losing the public's trust and appeared on a podcast to explain his argument.

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press . It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

Conservative activist Christopher Rufo is among those now targeting NPR's new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the network. Among others, those posts include a 2020 tweet that called Trump racist and another that appeared to minimize rioting during social justice protests that year. Maher took the job at NPR last month — her first at a news organization .

In a statement Monday about the messages she had posted, Maher praised the integrity of NPR's journalists and underscored the independence of their reporting.

"In America everyone is entitled to free speech as a private citizen," she said. "What matters is NPR's work and my commitment as its CEO: public service, editorial independence, and the mission to serve all of the American public. NPR is independent, beholden to no party, and without commercial interests."

The network noted that "the CEO is not involved in editorial decisions."

In an interview with me later on Monday, Berliner said the social media posts demonstrated Maher was all but incapable of being the person best poised to direct the organization.

"We're looking for a leader right now who's going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about," Berliner said. "And this seems to be the opposite of that."

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month. Stephen Voss/Stephen Voss hide caption

Conservative critics of NPR are now targeting its new chief executive, Katherine Maher, for messages she posted to social media years before joining the public radio network last month.

He said that he tried repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR's coverage known to news leaders and to Maher's predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay.

Berliner has singled out coverage of several issues dominating the 2020s for criticism, including trans rights, the Israel-Hamas war and COVID. Berliner says he sees the same problems at other news organizations, but argues NPR, as a mission-driven institution, has a greater obligation to fairness.

"I love NPR and feel it's a national trust," Berliner says. "We have great journalists here. If they shed their opinions and did the great journalism they're capable of, this would be a much more interesting and fulfilling organization for our listeners."

A "final warning"

The circumstances surrounding the interview were singular.

Berliner provided me with a copy of the formal rebuke to review. NPR did not confirm or comment upon his suspension for this article.

In presenting Berliner's suspension Thursday afternoon, the organization told the editor he had failed to secure its approval for outside work for other news outlets, as is required of NPR journalists. It called the letter a "final warning," saying Berliner would be fired if he violated NPR's policy again. Berliner is a dues-paying member of NPR's newsroom union but says he is not appealing the punishment.

The Free Press is a site that has become a haven for journalists who believe that mainstream media outlets have become too liberal. In addition to his essay, Berliner appeared in an episode of its podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss.

A few hours after the essay appeared online, NPR chief business editor Pallavi Gogoi reminded Berliner of the requirement that he secure approval before appearing in outside press, according to a copy of the note provided by Berliner.

In its formal rebuke, NPR did not cite Berliner's appearance on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation program last Tuesday night, for which NPR gave him the green light. (NPR's chief communications officer told Berliner to focus on his own experience and not share proprietary information.) The NPR letter also did not cite his remarks to The New York Times , which ran its article mid-afternoon Thursday, shortly before the reprimand was sent. Berliner says he did not seek approval before talking with the Times .

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

Berliner says he did not get permission from NPR to speak with me for this story but that he was not worried about the consequences: "Talking to an NPR journalist and being fired for that would be extraordinary, I think."

Berliner is a member of NPR's business desk, as am I, and he has helped to edit many of my stories. He had no involvement in the preparation of this article and did not see it before it was posted publicly.

In rebuking Berliner, NPR said he had also publicly released proprietary information about audience demographics, which it considers confidential. He said those figures "were essentially marketing material. If they had been really good, they probably would have distributed them and sent them out to the world."

Feelings of anger and betrayal inside the newsroom

His essay and subsequent public remarks stirred deep anger and dismay within NPR. Colleagues contend Berliner cherry-picked examples to fit his arguments and challenge the accuracy of his accounts. They also note he did not seek comment from the journalists involved in the work he cited.

Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.

"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."

Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.

"Newsrooms run on trust," NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben tweeted last week, without mentioning Berliner by name. "If you violate everyone's trust by going to another outlet and sh--ing on your colleagues (while doing a bad job journalistically, for that matter), I don't know how you do your job now."

Berliner rejected that critique, saying nothing in his essay or subsequent remarks betrayed private observations or arguments about coverage.

Other newsrooms are also grappling with questions over news judgment and confidentiality. On Monday, New York Times Executive Editor Joseph Kahn announced to his staff that the newspaper's inquiry into who leaked internal dissent over a planned episode of its podcast The Daily to another news outlet proved inconclusive. The episode was to focus on a December report on the use of sexual assault as part of the Hamas attack on Israel in October. Audio staffers aired doubts over how well the reporting stood up to scrutiny.

"We work together with trust and collegiality everyday on everything we produce, and I have every expectation that this incident will prove to be a singular exception to an important rule," Kahn wrote to Times staffers.

At NPR, some of Berliner's colleagues have weighed in online against his claim that the network has focused on diversifying its workforce without a concomitant commitment to diversity of viewpoint. Recently retired Chief Executive John Lansing has referred to this pursuit of diversity within NPR's workforce as its " North Star ," a moral imperative and chief business strategy.

In his essay, Berliner tagged the strategy as a failure, citing the drop in NPR's broadcast audiences and its struggle to attract more Black and Latino listeners in particular.

"During most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding," Berliner writes. "In recent years, however, that has changed."

Berliner writes, "For NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating both for its journalism and its business model."

NPR investigative reporter Chiara Eisner wrote in a comment for this story: "Minorities do not all think the same and do not report the same. Good reporters and editors should know that by now. It's embarrassing to me as a reporter at NPR that a senior editor here missed that point in 2024."

Some colleagues drafted a letter to Maher and NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, seeking greater clarity on NPR's standards for its coverage and the behavior of its journalists — clearly pointed at Berliner.

A plan for "healthy discussion"

On Friday, CEO Maher stood up for the network's mission and the journalism, taking issue with Berliner's critique, though never mentioning him by name. Among her chief issues, she said Berliner's essay offered "a criticism of our people on the basis of who we are."

Berliner took great exception to that, saying she had denigrated him. He said that he supported diversifying NPR's workforce to look more like the U.S. population at large. She did not address that in a subsequent private exchange he shared with me for this story. (An NPR spokesperson declined further comment.)

Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"

Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.

In a text for this story, Chapin said such sessions had been discussed since Lansing unified the news and programming divisions under her acting leadership last year.

"Now seemed [the] time to deliver if we were going to do it," Chapin said. "Healthy discussion is something we need more of."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Katherine Maher
uri berliner

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Psychoanalytical literary criticism, on one level, concerns itself with dreams, for dreams are a reflection of the unconscious psychological states of dreamers. Freud, for example, contends that dreams are "the guardians of sleep" where they become "disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes."Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams ...
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Psychological criticism is a critical approach to literature that employs psychological theories to examine aspects of a literary work as a way to better understand both the author's mind and the characters, themes, and other elements of the text. Thus, the mind is at the center of our target as we learn more about psychological criticism.
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pointing the way toward the development of psychoanalytic criticism. One of the keystones in psychoanalytic theory is the concept of the unconscious. As Freud writes in his essay "Psychoanalysis" (1963): It was a triumph for the interpretative art of psychoanalysis when it succeeded in demonstrating that certain common mental acts of
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Psychoanalytic Criticism. Psychoanalytic criticism adopts the methods of "reading" employed by Freud and later theorists to interpret texts. It argues that literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and anxieties of the author, that a literary work is a manifestation of the author's own neuroses.
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Many Lacanian critics understand literature itself as way to fill in "lacks" or "gaps" to fulfill unconscious desires. The key point is that psychoanalytic criticism looks at the unconscious ...
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Search for: 'psychoanalytic criticism' in Oxford Reference ». A form of literary interpretation that employs the terms of psychoanalysis (the unconscious, repression, the Oedipus complex, etc.) in order to illuminate aspects of literature in its connection with conflicting psychological states. The beginnings of this modern tradition are found ...
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Ernest Jones, Psycho-Myth, Psycho-History: Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis (1974). Ernest Jones, "The Theory of Symbolism," Papers on Psycho-Analysis (5th ed., 1916). Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (1952). Julia Kristeva, Intimate Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis (trans. Jeanine Herman, 2002).
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Psychoanalytical literary criticism, on one level, concerns itself with dreams, for dreams are a reflection of the unconscious psychological states of dreamers. Freud, for example, contends that dreams are "the guardians of sleep" where they become "disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes.". Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of ...
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Footnote 1 However, in contemporary scholarship, that trend in Lacanian-inspired psychoanalytic criticism has largely abated without leaving in its wake much renewed interest in psychoanalytic theory. The few psychoanalytic literary critics that remain—and there are still some—are typically held in lower regard than their more formalist (or ...
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This means that psychoanalysis does not lead to what is naively called "self-awareness.". After years of analysis most analysand will say "I've understood lots of things!". But if they're asked what exactly, they don't know what to say …. The awareness reached with analysis is a paradoxical unconscious awareness.
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Classical Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud. Drives and instincts are connected with the human personal experiences, and the id associated with the human unconscious nature is oriented to pleasure and satisfying the sex instinct and to satisfying the aggression instinct. Interpersonal Psychoanalysis: Personality and Personification.
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The title of this article - The relationship between literature and psychoanalysis - alludes to the mutuality and dialogical aspects of our subject: how can psychoanalysis and literature enrich and illuminate each other? To get closer to the complexities of this big question, I will take a closer look at the different methods used and how this interdisciplinary field has developed.
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A renowned Australian psychoanalyst, famous for his great deal of research on Psychoanalytic criticism, published an essay 'The Interpretation of Dreams.' The Relationship between Freud's Theory and Literary Criticism. Freud's theory to some extent was able to bridge literary work and dreams. It makes the reality of dreams seem natural.
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