2. Psychoanalytic theory
And you thought you were just dreaming about shoes and a forest

3. Psychoanalytical Theory
Psychoanalytic criticism built on the principles of psychoanalysis developed by Sigmund Freud ( )
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. One may psychoanalyze a particular character within a literary work, but it is usually assumed that all such characters are projections of the author's psyche.
we can better understand and interpret literature by applying the methods of psychoanalysis both to literary characters and their authors, often at the same time.  This is most often done by treating the work as a dream and interpreting the content to find the hidden meaning, achieved through a close analysis of the language and symbolism.
this critical endeavor seeks evidence of unresolved emotions, psychological conflicts, guilts, ambivalences, and so forth within what may well be a disunified literary work.

4. Questions for the Psychoanalytic Reader
How do the operations of repression structure or inform the work?
Are there any oedipal dynamics - or any other family dynamics - are work here?
How can characters' behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (for example...fear or fascination with death, sexuality - which includes love and romance as well as sexual behavior - as a primary indicator of psychological identity or the operations of ego-id-superego)?
What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author?
What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader?
Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these "problem words"?

5. Psychoanalytic Lens
To read literature in this manner, one may look to a variety of psychological categories for application:
Id, Ego, Superego
Oedipus/Elektra Complex
Stages of development (psychosocial and psychosexual)
Psychological disorders/Abnormal Psychology
Repression and Regression
Sexuality
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
Dreams
Symbolism

6. Psychosocial Developmental Stages (Erikson)

7. Psychosexual Developmental Stages (Freud)

8. Id, Ego, and Superego
EGO- "...one of the major defenses against the power of the drives..."
mediates between the unrealistic id and the external real world
“The reality principle”
works out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society.
The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.
SUPEREGO- the area of the unconscious that houses Judgment (of self and others)
incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others
to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression.
persuades the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.
Freud maintained that our desires and our unconscious conflicts give rise to three areas of the mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy, to childhood, to adulthood:
ID- "...the location of the drives" or libido
I do what I want when I want
Primitive, instinctive; impulsive, unconscious
“The pleasure principle”

9. Oedipus Complex
 the Oedipus complex involves children's need for their parents and the conflict that arises as children mature and realize they are not the absolute focus of their mother's attention
Freud thought that "...during the Oedipal rivalry [between boys and their fathers], boys fantasized that punishment for their rage will take the form of..." castration (1016). When boys effectively work through this anxiety, Freud argued, "...the boy learns to identify with the father in the hope of someday possessing a woman like his mother. In girls, the castration complex does not take the form of anxiety...the result is a frustrated rage in which the girl shifts her sexual desire from the mother to the father“
Freud believed that eventually, the girl's spurned advanced toward the father give way to a desire to possess a man like her father later in life (i.e. Elektra Complex)

10. Carl Jung
attempts to explore the connection between literature and what Carl Jung (a student of Freud) called the “collective unconscious” of the human race: "...racial memory, through which the spirit of the whole human species manifests itself" (Richter 504).
Jungian criticism, closely related to Freudian theory because of its connection to psychoanalysis, assumes that all stories and symbols are based on mythic models from mankind’s past.
This will also serve as a preview to Mythological Criticism
Based on these commonalities, Jung developed archetypal myths
a Jungian critic would look for archetypes in creative works
generally involved with a search for the embodiment of these symbols within particular works of art.
When dealing with this sort of criticism, it is often useful to keep a handbook of mythology and a dictionary of symbols on hand.

11. Questions for a Jungian Reading:
What connections can we make between elements of the text and the archetypes? (Mask, Shadow, Anima, Animus)
How do the characters in the text mirror the archetypal figures? (Great Mother or nurturing Mother, Whore, destroying Crone, Lover, Destroying Angel)
How does the text mirror the archetypal narrative patterns? (Quest, Night-Sea- Journey)
How symbolic is the imagery in the work?
How does the protagonist reflect the hero of myth?
Does the “hero” embark on a journey in either a physical or spiritual sense?
Is there a journey to an underworld or land of the dead?
What trials or ordeals does the protagonist face? What is the reward for overcoming them?

12. Alice in Wonderland meets Freud: Sexual Symbolism
The first wave of Alice psychoanalysts focused on the sexual symbolism in the novel, which according to the theory reveals Carroll’s own repressed sexuality
For example, an interpretation of Alice’s ordeal with the different doors would look thusly:
Here we find the common symbolism of lock and key representing coitus; the doors of normal size represent adult women. These are disregarded by the dreamer and the interest is centered on the little door, which symbolizes a female child; the curtain before it represents the child’s clothes (Goldschmidt, p. 281)
Alice’s “penetrating” the rabbit hole, the keys and the locks, and the small door, are “colorful” symbols of the act of sex, which he interprets as proof of the “the presence, in [Lewis Carroll’s] subconscious, of an abnormal emotion of considerable strength”
Other possibilities:
the extreme violence of many of Wonderland’s inhabitants as the representation of Carroll’s frustrated sexual urges
Alice represents a substitute for a mother and sister, and Lewis’ own unconscious desire to reject his adult masculinity and to become a little girl himself

13. Alice in Wonderland meets Freud: The Child and Identity
Later psychoanalysts have focused more Alice’s experiences in Wonderland functioning as an allegory for the developing ego, or, in other words, for growing up. For, despite having been written by a middle-aged man, many critics have found it worthwhile to study the character of Alice as an example of the child-mind dealing learning to understand the world and itself.
Like all children, Alice must separate herself from identification with others, develop an ego, become aware of aggression (her own and others’), and learn to tolerate adversity without succumbing to self-pity…In other words, Alice has to grow up. (Stowell, p.5)
Through her experiences in Wonderland, Alice gradually gains empowering insight and self-understanding in order to embrace her own identity. 

14. Examples of Psychoanalytic Applications to Characters
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