Psychoanalysis: A Journey into the Dark HKASL ~ Literature in English

Introduction A family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud To discover connections among the unconscious components of patients' mental processes To help liberate the patient from unexamined or unconscious barriers of transference and resistance

Hypotheses Human development: changing objects of sexual desire The psychic apparatus habitually represses wishes Usually sexual or aggressive Preserved in one or more unconscious systems of ideas Unconscious conflicts over repressed wishes manifested in dreams, parapraxes ("Freudian slips"), and symptoms

Hypotheses Unconscious conflicts: source of neuroses Treated in psychoanalytic treatment: bringing the unconscious wishes and repressed memories to consciousness

The Unconscious The unconscious: part of mental functioning of which subjects make themselves unaware Not including all of what is not conscious, e.g., motor skills Actively repressed from conscious thought, such as stereotypes and the effects of past relationships on the present

The Unconscious A depository for… Not necessarily solely negative Socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires Traumatic memories Painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression Not necessarily solely negative A force to be recognized by its effects — it expresses itself in the symptom

Psychic structures Divisions of the psyche The id The super-ego: Primitive desires Hunger, rage, and sex The super-ego: Internalized norms, morality and taboos The ego: Mediation between the two May include or give rise to the sense of self

Roots of Neurosis Freud’s earliest writings: all neuroses were rooted in childhood sexual abuse (the seduction theory) Freud came to abandon or de-emphasize this hypothesis The importance of unconscious fantasy as the cause of neurosis Particularly fantasy structured according to the Oedipus complex

Roots of Neurosis: The Oedipus complex A concept developed to explain the origin of certain neuroses in childhood Based on the Greek myth of Oedipus: Unwittingly kills his father Laius Marries his mother Jocasta To emerge in childhood To persist into adulthood in the form of symptomatic interferences with mature sexual relationships if left unresolved

Roots of Neurosis: The Oedipus Complex Including ‘positive' and 'negative‘ aspects The positive oedipal longings: The child's sexual wishes for and desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex Engendering jealousy and death-wishes towards the rival same-sex parent

Roots of Neurosis: The Oedipus Complex The opposite or 'negative' oedipal longings For the parent of the same-sex Corresponding wishes to eliminate the parent of the opposite sex Usually are less predominant Depending on multiple factors The sex of the child Other constitutional factors The point in time during the oedipal phase External circumstances within the child's environment

Roots of Neurosis: The Oedipus Complex Conscious initially Sometimes verbalized by children during the oedipal phase of development Roughly between the ages of three and five Resolution to the conflicts: Child’s concessions to reality in his / her growth Identifications with parental values Unresolved residues: Repressed to the unconscious To be manifested in the form of symptoms and inhibitions

The Life and Death Instincts Humans driven by two conflicting central desires: The life drive Eros / Libido Incorporating the sex drive Creative, life-producing The death drive Thanatos (or death instinct) An urge inherent in all living things Returning to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence

Post-Freudian Schools Object relations theory The ego-self exists only in relation to other objects External or internal Internal objects: Internalized versions of external objects Primarily formed from early interactions with the parents

Post-Freudian Schools Object relations theory Three fundamental "affects" existing between the self and the other Attachment Frustration Rejection Universal emotional states Major building blocks of the personality

Post-Freudian Schools Interpersonal psychoanalysis Harry Stack Sullivan Details of patient's interpersonal interactions with others: insight into the causes and cures of mental disorder Patients keep many aspects of interpersonal relationships out of their awareness by selective inattention Psychotherapists: Conduct a detailed inquiry into patient's interactions with others Patients would become optimally aware of their interpersonal patterns

Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism Influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic reading as an interpretive tradition To explore the psyche of authors and characters To explain narrative mysteries To develop new concepts in psychoanalysis

Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism Object: the psychoanalysis of the author or of a particularly interesting character Following the analytic interpretive process discussed in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams More complex variations are possible The founding texts of psychoanalysisre-read for the light cast by their formal qualities on their theoretical content Example: Freud's texts Resembling detective stories Archaeological narratives

~Hope you enjoy the journey into your “self”~