The main goal of psychoanalysis is to bring whatever is looming at the subconscious or unconscious to the conscious mind. Psychoanalytic critics see problems that can be rooted in the unconscious mind. To me, this theory is like a glorified therapy session. There are typical causes is ongoing trauma or issues during development but the key of this theory is to shed light on these unresolved issues and bring them to the surface to fix. Initially, psychoanalytic literary theory consisted of applying psychoanalysis to either the author or the main character of a work, seeking unconscious or latent meaning underneath the language and analyzing the symbols contained in a given work. A big part of this work is understanding human behavior and if we can understand human behavior then we will be able to firmly grasp literary text.

Sigmund Freud was the father of this theory and he believed that events that happened when we were young shape our identity and personality when we get older. Freud discovered many techniques that played different roles in the psyche and mind, like transference and free association. He split the psyche into three different parts, the ID, Ego, and superego. The ID could be classified as out instincts and our drive for desire, the Ego is our reality and the persona “I”, and lastly, the superego is our morals and what we learn form our parents and others.

Jacques Lacan critiqued and developed Freud’s work to dissect human behavior and uses post structuralism to look for a pure, self-contained being.

How do we figure out the ID, Ego, and Superego? How can you explain the characters morals and motivations?

“In addition, we have access to our unconscious if we know how to use it, throughout dreams and through any creative activities we engage in because both our dreams and our creativity, independent of our conscious will or desire, draw directly on the unconscious.”