• To show by examples how readers may apply this mode of interpretation to enhance their understanding and appreciation of literature
Limitations
• Aesthetic inadequacy • It can afford many profound clues toward solving a work’s thematic and symbolic mysteries, but it can seldom account for the beautiful symmetry of a well-wrought poem or of a fictional masterpiece.
libido and literature
• 这里的性不是指生殖意义上的性，它被称为：“力比多” （libido)，泛指一切身体器官的快感，力比多是一种本能， 是一种力量，是人的心理现象发生的驱动力。弗洛伊德认 为,文学艺术的发生既非源于人类模仿的天性,也不是出自 人们表现情感的愿望,而是源于人“欲望”的升华。他把 对性的渴望的内驱力称为力比多,用于解释一切精神活动 的能量来源 • 人的愿望除了权力,财富,名誉,野心等等之外,主要是要求得 到发泄和释放的对性的愿望。而艺术家不同,他可以以他 特有的禀赋,把压抑的感情升华为艺术作品。不仅使压抑 得以控制,使不道德得以掩饰,而且以其审美品格给人们带 来愉悦和享受,因此在弗洛伊德看来“艺术家基本上是性 格内向者,与精神病患者相去不远,他承受着本能欲望异乎 寻常的逼迫”,艺术家和白日梦者的不同在于艺术家能够 赋予其本能欲望一种社会可以接受的形式,以所谓艺术美 之形式掩饰其不合道德伦理之内容,于是力比多作为人的 终极动力,也被弗aries of Freudian theory
• • • • • • • Child psychology Different stages: Oral stage Anal stage Phallic stage Latency stage Genital stage Oedipus complex derives from the body’s unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother
Three premises
• That the most of the individual’s mental processes are unconscious • All human behavior is motivated ultimately by what we could call sexuality • Because of the powerful social taboos attached to certain sexual impulses, many of our desires and memories are repressed.
Several corollaries of Freudian theory
• Three psychic zones: the id, the ego and the superego
Several corollaries of Freudian theory
• Perhaps the most controversial (and, to many persons, the most offensive) facet of psychoanalytic criticism is its tendency to interpret imagery in terms of sexuality
Abuses and misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach
• There are 3 abuses of the approach during the twentieth century. • These abuses have given rise to a widespread mistrust of the psychological approach as a tool for critical analysis.
Freud’s psychological method on Chinese poem
• 山居秋暝 王维 空山新雨后，天气晚来秋。 明月松间照，清泉石上流。 竹喧归浣女，莲动下渔舟。 随意春芳歇，王孙自可留。
Comments of the psychological approach
• The most controversial, most abused, and least appreciated by many readers.
• It can be fascinating and rewarding.
Purpose
• To account briefly for the misunderstanding of psychological criticism
• To outline the psychological theory most commonly used as an interpretive tool by modern critics
Freud’s theory
• Iceberg theory • He demonstrated that, like the iceberg, the human mind is structured so that its great weight and density lie beneath the surface (below the level of consciousness)