1. Psychological Criticism
“the artist is the leader of mankind on the road to absolute truth”
-Alfred Adler

2. Psychological criticism is inspired by Sigmund Freud and his notion of the unconscious
Actions are not random, but they are guided by hidden motivations (repression)

3. Key ideas for Psychological Criticism
Areas of consciousness
Id (desire)
- guided by
the pleasure principle
Ego (safety)
- mediates between id and superego
- sends taboo desires to the unconscious
Superego (morals)
- learned sense of right and wrong

5. Key Ideas
Oedipus complex
The first repressed desire

6. Other Key Terms Isolation – absence of expected response
ignoring your emotions
Sublimation – channeling unacceptable desires to art or fantasy
Displacement – substituting another object to focus one’s emotion on

7. Other Key Terms Denial – not acknowledging the existence of something
Projection – put your own desires on something/someone else
Reversal – assert opposite of the truth

8. Assumptions a Psychoanalytic Critic Makes
Creative writing (like dreaming) represents the (disguised) fulfillment of a (repressed) wish or fear.
Everyone’s formative history is different, but there are patterns and these patterns have lasting effects.
In reading literature, we can make educated guesses as to what has been repressed or transformed.

9. Strategies for the Psychoanalytic Critic
Attempt to apply development concept to the work.
Relate the event to psychologically significant events in the author’s or character’s life.
Consider how repressed material may be expressed in the work’s imagery or symbols.