Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

Tyson notes that psychoanalytic concepts like “sibling rivalry” are widely understood in popular culture, but in a clichéd and superficial form. The goal of this chapter is to provide a more grounded understanding of psychoanalysis and how it can inform interpretations of human behavior and, therefore, literary texts. 

The chapter begins with a discussion of Sigmund Freud’s classical psychoanalysis, followed by a discussion of Jacques Lacan’s theories of psychoanalysis. It ends with examples of psychoanalytic readings of literary works.

The Origins of the Unconscious

Psychoanalysis focuses on psychological problems that manifest through patterns of dysfunctional behavior. Freud asserted that humans are motivated by unconscious desires, of which they are unaware. Beginning in childhood, people repress painful feelings and emotions. Then, our behaviors “play out” our unconscious. Until we learn and acknowledge our unconscious “wounds” and “conflicts,” we “play” them out “in disguised, distorted, and self-defeating ways” (11). 

The origin of the unconscious is in our repression of our feelings about our familial roles (e.g., “sibling rivalry”). As we mature, we move through different stages of identities and shed old ones. If we become stuck at a stage, problems arise. Tyson gives the example of the “Oedipal complex” (i.e., a boy or man’s love for his mother and hostility toward his father) and how this might manifest.

The Defenses, Anxiety, and Core Issues

People create defenses like denial and projection to shield themselves from acknowledging their unconscious and its effect on behavior. When these defenses fail, it produces anxiety. This anxiety is indicative of core issues hidden in the unconscious becoming apparent. Tyson provides a list and description of core issues, such as “low self-esteem” (14).

Dreams and Dream Symbols

During sleep, the unconscious expresses itself through dreams. Dreams have latent content, or an implicit message, hidden in its manifest content, or what the dream actually shows. This manifest content can be interpreted like any symbolism. For instance, if something in a dream “stands upright, goes off, or has a serpentine form,” (16) it might be a “phallic symbol.” Tyson provides descriptions of other common dream symbols like female imagery, water, buildings, etc. Recurring dreams indicate “unconscious concerns.”

The Meaning of Death

Human beings have “an inborn compulsion toward oblivion” (17), known as the “death drive” or Thanatos. Tyson lays out how the death drive plays into related psychological concerns about the fear of abandonment, loss, and even life. Media representations of death operate as a defense so that we can project fear of our own death onto others.

The Meaning of Sex

Freud argued that sexual desire, or Eros, is a “life-affirming” drive that exists in opposition to Thanatos. The rules around the enactment of this drive are shaped by the superego, or societal expectations of moral behavior. The superego is in opposition to the id, “repressed aggressive desires” (20), and the libido, “sexual energy.” The ego tries to mediate between the id and the superego. Freud’s theories were shaped by society’s rigid gender roles, and they deal with the complexity of sex and its role in human life.

Lacanian Psychoanalysis

Tyson summarizes key concepts of the “nontraditional” psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, beginning with Lacanian theory of infant psychological development. In the “Mirror Stage,” a young child learns to understand itself as a whole being, rather than as fragmented, by seeing its reflection in a mirror. This prompts the introduction of the “Imaginary Order,” or an understanding of the world through images rather than words shaped around the “Desire of the Mother,” or the mutual desire between child and mother. 

As the child matures, language acquisition leads to the “Symbolic Order,” or the understanding that words are connected to meaning. This results in an understanding that “I” is different from “you,” triggering the dissolution of connection with the mother. Lacan believed that people’s psychologies are oriented around recreating this connection through the symbolic order in substitutes for the mother, such as money or religion, but that ultimately this desire will be unfulfilled. Lacan referred to these substitutes as objet petit a.

Lacan argued that “the unconscious is structured like a language” (23), in that both the unconscious and language are structured around identifying things that are separate from us, with a focus on loss and lack. Tyson gives an example of how this works in metaphors and metonymy, describing the “rules” of the symbolic order and how they impact our psychology. Lacan argued that the symbolic and imaginary order are methods to control and avoid “the Real,” which is what exists beyond ideology.

Tyson briefly analyzes “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Awakening by Kate Chopin through a Lacanian lens. For instance, she argues that Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of The Awakening, is driven by her search for objet petit a. This is an example of how psychological critical theory can build understanding of The Relationship Between Language and Reality. In this case, it illustrates how real psychological dynamics are manifest in the fictional works of Gilman and Chopin.

Classical Psychoanalysis and Literature

Tyson gives examples of how psychoanalytic theory can reveal understandings about family dynamics, sexuality, or patterns of behavior in texts. She uses this technique to analyze Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. For instance, Tyson argues that Victor Frankenstein is driven by repressed feelings of abandonment that originated in childhood. She states that psychoanalytic approaches can be used to analyze “any human production” because Freud theorized principles that are at work in all human beings (30).

Some Questions Psychoanalytic Critics Ask About Literary Texts

Tyson provides a series of questions that summarize psychoanalytic approaches to literature, highlighting how psychological factors often drive the narrative and influence the plot (31-32):

1. How does repression shape the work? What do the characters’ unconscious motives reveal about them?

2. Are there Oedipal or other family dynamics at play? What do they reveal?

3. How do the characters reflect psychoanalytic understandings of the fear of death or an unhealthy relationship to sex?

4. To what extent is the literary work and/or its symbolism dream-like?

5. To what extent does the text relate to principles of Lacanian analysis like objet petit a?

“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”: A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Great Gatsby

In her psychoanalytic reading of The Great Gatsby, Tyson argues that the destructive behaviors present in the relationships of the characters are “grounded in the characters’ fear of intimacy,” as shown, for instance, through Tom Buchanan’s “chronic extramarital affairs” (32). This analysis begins with a plot-level assessment of the characters and their relationships. It then moves to close readings of the text, with particular focus on the characters of Jay Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy, that provide further detail. Throughout, it references psychoanalytic theory about “unresolved psychological conflicts” to support its claim (39). Finally, Tyson asserts this lens shows how in The Great Gatsby, “romantic love is the stage” for these unresolved conflicts (39).

Questions for Further Practice: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Other Literary Works

Tyson provides model questions to guide psychoanalytic literary analysis. These questions explore how psychoanalytic concepts, such as repression, denial, displacement, and dream symbolism, can deepen a reader’s understanding of texts. Topics include the following (40):

1. The return of the repressed in Tony Morrison’s Beloved, exploring how trauma shapes relationships within the story

2. Death work and its projection in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, focusing on Marlow’s experiences

3. Displacement of emotions in Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing, particularly regarding the narrator’s relationship with her child

4. Repression, the superego, and dream symbolism in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, using “I Started Early—Took My Dog” as an example

5. Lacanian theory in Frankenstein, examining Victor’s psychological conflicts, his relationship to the imaginary and symbolic orders, and the concept of objet petit a

These questions serve as tools to interpret a variety of texts through a psychoanalytic lens, encouraging readers to consider the psychological underpinnings of characters and narratives.