Review of Freud’s Psychoanalysis Approach to Literary Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this review article is to identify theories of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud that play major roles in interpreting literary works. Psychoanalysis is among one of the modern theories used in literary analysis. Whether psychoanalysis has close connection with literature or not has been most controversial issues for many readers and least appreciated. In spite of being one of famous approach for interpreting literary text, it has become one of the mechanisms for interpreting hidden meaning of the text. The finding of this paper revealed Psychoanalysis is not simply branch of medicine, it has helped and is used to understand various fields as philosophy, culture, religion and first and for most used in literature. It also revealed that there is similarities and controversial issues between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalytical criticism. Id, which is part of human personality playing a major role in forming literary work for its repressed behaviors, laid in unconscious mind. The human actions which are suppressed feelings because of superego and can be expressed with the help of Ego which balance the conflict between id and superego in the right time in form of dreams, art, literary work and slip of tongue.  Psychoanalysis approach is used to analyze piece of art by investigating closely the author and his/her life and literary work for providing evidence in analyzing, one or more of the character’s behavior and inspiration, the audience’ appealing and motivation to which react more closely or less unconsciously and the text for examining the role of language and symbolism in the work.