The Psychological Approach: Freud

Freud’s Theories

The foundation of Freud’s contribution to modern psychology is his emphasis on the unconscious aspects of the human psyche.

Like iceberg, the human mind is structured so that

its great weight and density lie beneath the

surface (below the level of consciousness)

Freud’s second major premise is that all human behavior is motivated ultimately by what we would call sexuality. Freud in 1931 with his chow dogs in Potzi

einsdorf, near Vienna. He was known as 'The Clock Man,‘ because he lived his life to such a tight timetable.

Freud’s third premise is that because of the powerful social taboos attached to certain sexual impulses, many of our desires and memories are repressed ( that is, actively excluded from conscious awareness).

Several corollaries of Freudian theory

The id is the reservoir of libido, the primary source of all psychic energy. It fulfills the primordial life principle, which Freud considers to be the pleasure principle.Freud’s assignment of the

mental processes to three psyche zones: the id, the ego, and the superego.

Ego is the rational governing agents of the psyche. Though the ego lacks the strong vitality of the id, it regulates the instinctual drives of the id so that they may be released in nondestructive behavioral patterns.

Acting either directly or through the ego, the superego serves to repress or inhibit the drives of the id, to block of and thrust back into the unconscious those impulses toward pleasure that society regards as unacceptable.

The other regulating agent, that which primarily functions to protect society, is the superego.

Whereas the id is dominated by the pleasure principle and the ego by the reality principle, the superego is dominated by the morality principle.

The Psychological Approach in Practice

Ernest Jones points out that Hamlet as a psychoneurotic who suffers from manic-depressive hysteria combined with an abulia– all of which may be traced to the hero’s severely repressed Oedipal feelings.

The usual oedipal triangle of mother, son, and father has been altered by the addition of Claudius in Place of Hamlet's original father.  No wonder Hamlet looks disturbed.  (from the Bra

nagh version)

the character of the ghost and Claudius are dramatic projections of Hamlet’s own conscious-unconscious ambivalence toward the father figure. The ghost represents the conscious ideal of fatherhood. His view of Claudius represents Hamlet’s repressed hostility toward his father as a rival for his mother’s affection.

Richard Dadd's 1840 oil painting of the closet scene.

Rebellions Against the Father in Huckleberry Finn

Miss Watson and pap Finn both represent social and legal morality. In the light of such authority both Miss Watson and pap Finn may be said to represent the superego. In this sense, it is to escape the oppressive tyranny and cruel restraints of the superego that Huck and Jim take flight on the river.

In the novel, both Miss Watson and pap Finn represent extremes of authority

Lacking a real mother, Huck finds his symbolic mother in the river; in Freudian terms, he returns to the womb. From this matrix he undergoes a series of symbolic deaths and rebirths, punctuated structurally by the episodes on land.

Mark Twain’s great novel has this in common with Hamlet: both are concerned with the theme of rebellion– with a hostile treatment of the father figure.

Young Goodman Brown: Id Verses Superego

The village is a place of light and order, both social and spiritual order. Brown leaves Faith behind the town at sunset and returns to Faith in the morning. The journey into the wildness is taken in the night.

Illustration of Brown entering the heart of darkness

The village, as a place of social and moral order is analogous to Freud’s superego, conscience, the morally inhibiting agent of the psyche; the forest, as a place of wild, untamed passions and terrors, has the attributes of the Freudian id.

As mediator between these opposing forces, Brown resembles the poor ego, which tries to effect a healthy balance

Related Sources about Freud

• Maier, Norman R. F. A Psychological Approach to Literary Criticism. Folcroft Library Editions,1972.

• Jacobs, Michael. Sigmund Freud. London :SAGE P, 2003.

• Guttman, Samuel A. The Concordance to the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. N.Y. :International U P,1984.

• Sigmund Freud Museum http://www.freud.org.uk/