Psychoanalytic Criticism Lecture Review

Flashcards covering key concepts, figures, dates, and theoretical frameworks from the Psychoanalytic Criticism lecture.

What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?

Literary criticism influenced by the psychoanalytic tradition founded by Sigmund Freud, involving psychoanalytic readings of authors, characters, or text structures.

How are literary texts interpreted in relation to the author in psychoanalytic criticism?

They are viewed as expressions of the unconscious desires or neuroses of the author.

What does it mean to read a literary text 'as if it were a kind of dream'?

It means treating the text's surface as manifest content that represses its underlying, latent content.

In Freudian dream theory, what is 'manifest content'?

The obvious surface content of a dream or text that masks its underlying hidden meaning.

In Freudian dream theory, what is 'latent content'?

The real, hidden, or repressed underlying thoughts and desires behind the manifest content.

What is 'Dream Work' in psychoanalysis?

The process by which latent dream thoughts are transformed into manifest content.

What two primary operations are involved in the process of Dream Work?

Condensation and Displacement.

What is the main role of a critic practicing psychoanalytic literary criticism?

To analyze the language and symbolism of a text to reverse the Dream Work and reveal the underlying latent thoughts.

What are the birth and death years of Sigmund Freud?

1856–1939.

Where was Sigmund Freud born and educated?

He was born in Moravia (now in Czech Republic) to Jewish parents and educated in Vienna.

Which two major non-medical influences on Freud's early intellectual development are cited in the lecture?

The Bible and Darwin.

Which physician laid the foundations of psychotherapy and significantly influenced Freud?

Josef Breuer.

Whose studies on hysteria influenced Freud to realize that neuroses may have psychological origins?

Jean-Martin Charcot.

What foundational book was co-published by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer in 1895?

Studies on Hysteria.

Who did Sigmund Freud marry, and which of his children became a prominent psychoanalyst?

He married Martha Bernays and had 6 children, including Anna Freud.

Before fully developing free association, what clinical techniques did Freud rely on?

Electrotherapy and hypnosis.

In Freudian psychoanalysis, what is 'transference'?

An intense emotional relationship that develops between the patient and the analyst.

What is considered Sigmund Freud's most important conceptual contribution?

The idea of the unconscious mind and of thoughts occurring below the surface.

According to Freud, what causes neurotic symptoms?

Repressed instincts or impulses in the unconscious.

What central intellectual paradigm did Freud's theories challenge and subvert?

The Enlightenment and 19th-century Cartesian view of the human subject as autonomous, rational, and capable of total self-understanding (Positivism).

In what year was Freud's landmark work The Interpretation of Dreams published?

1900.

In what year was Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle published?

1920.

In what year was Freud's work The Ego and the Id published?

1923.

What famous phrase did Freud use to describe dreams in relation to the unconscious?

Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.

What three operations are listed in the transcript as part of the Dream-Work mechanism?

Condensation, Displacement, and Dramatization.

What is 'secondary elaboration' in Freud's dream theory?

Your attempt upon waking to make your dream meaningful by rationalizing and inaccurately recollecting it.

In Freudian dream analysis, what is 'Condensation'?

The mechanism where one aspect of manifest content represents a number of latent elements, or vice versa.

In Freudian dream analysis, what is 'Displacement'?

The mechanism where emotions associated with one experience or object get detached from it and attached to something else.

In Freudian dream analysis, what is 'Dramatization'?

The representation of repressed emotions in visual images to cheat the ego.

List three phallic dream symbols mentioned in the transcript.

Guns, snakes, and neckties.

List three vaginal dream symbols mentioned in the transcript.

Doors, tunnels, and windows.

How does Freud define the process of 'repression'?

The mechanism by which painful thoughts and experiences are banished from consciousness into the unconscious.

In Freud's structural model, what is the 'Id'?

The fully unconscious part of the psyche containing drives and natural impulses repressed by consciousness.

In Freud's structural model, what is the 'Ego'?

The mostly conscious part of the psyche that deals with external reality (reality principle) and mediates between id and super-ego.

In Freud's structural model, what is the 'Super-ego'?

The partly conscious part of the psyche that functions as the conscience or internal moral judge (moral principle) as well as the ideal self.

What mechanism does the Ego employ to solve internal conflicts between the Id and the Super-ego?

Defense mechanisms.

According to the mind pyramid diagram on Page 19, what percentage of the mind is Conscious?

10%.

What model of the mind is illustrated in this diagram?

The Iceberg Model of the Mind (showing Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious regions with Ego, Superego, and Id).

How did Freud attempt to prove the universal validity of his psychosexual development theory?

By using mythology and contemporary ethnography.

What is the Oedipus Complex?

The universal repressed desire in children for incest with the parent of the opposite sex and hostility toward the same-sex parent.

What is 'sublimation' in Freudian theory?

A defense mechanism through which the libido (sexual desire) changes its object and turns to non-sexual outlets.

What are the five stages of psychosexual development in correct chronological order?

Oral stage, Anal stage, Phallic stage, Latency stage, and Genital stage.

What is the age range for the Oral Stage of psychosexual development?

Birth to 1 year (0-1).

What is the age range for the Anal Stage of psychosexual development?

1 to 3 years (1-3).

What is the age range for the Phallic Stage of psychosexual development?

3 to 6 years (3-6).

According to this psychosexual stages chart, during which stage does the Ego develop?

The Oral stage.

What personality traits or fixations can result from unresolved issues during the Oral Stage?

Oral fixations like chewing on pens, smoking, overeating, or a passive or manipulative personality.

What conflict characterizes the Anal Stage of development?

The conflict between the Id (wanting to defecate) and the Ego and Super-ego during toilet training.

What anxiety do boys experience during the Phallic Stage due to competition with their father?

Castration Anxiety.

What principle governs a young child's mind prior to the establishment of gender and identity?

The pleasure principle.

In Freudian theory, who embodies the reality principle that disrupts the male child's Oedipal desire?

The Father.

Why is Freudian psychoanalysis characterized as a 'phallocentric' theory?

Because it posits that the unconscious always desires the phallus (penis) and centers on fear or desire regarding castration.

What is 'Eros' in Freud's dual-drive theory?

The life drive, incorporating self-preservation, the sex drive, and all creative, life-producing drives.

What is 'Thanatos' in Freud's dual-drive theory?

The death or destruction drive, representing an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of calm or non-existence.

What is the Freudian concept of 'The Uncanny'?

An instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange or uncomfortably familiar.

What are 'parapraxes' (Freudian slips)?

Erroneous actions such as saying or writing wrong words, or memory slips, determined by unconscious prior causes.

What is 'psychic determinism'?

The principle that nothing in the psyche happens by chance; mental and physical behavior is determined by prior unconscious causes.

Which two classic literary plays did Freud prominently analyze to illustrate psychoanalytic concepts?

Oedipus Rex and Hamlet.

What does 'fate' in Oedipus Rex represent according to Freud?

The representation of an internal necessity.

According to Freud, why does Hamlet hesitate to execute revenge upon Claudius?

Because Claudius shows Hamlet in realization the repressed desires of Hamlet's own childhood (killing his father and taking his father's place with his mother).

In Freud's analysis of Hamlet, what replaces Hamlet's urge for revenge?

Self-reproach.

What were the birth and death years of Carl Jung?

1875–1961.

Why did Carl Jung break away from Sigmund Freud?

Jung criticized Freud's theory of infantile sexuality and the Oedipus complex.

How did Carl Jung's view of dreams differ from Freud's view?

Jung viewed dreams as compensatory rather than hiding latent repressed wishes—bringing material to attention to express and create.

Which non-Western spiritual traditions influenced Carl Jung's psychology?

Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist cultures, and yoga.

What is an 'Archetype' in Jungian theory?

A universal model of a person, personality, or behavior present in mythology and literature for hundreds of years.

What are the four basic archetypes present in all human beings according to Carl Jung?

The Self, the Persona, the Shadow, and Anima (in men) / Animus (in women).

Define 'Anima' and 'Animus' in Jungian psychology.

Anima is the unconscious feminine component in men; Animus is the unconscious masculine component in women.

What are the four stages of Anima evolution and their representative figures cited in the lecture?

Pre-sexual feminine (Shirley Temple), sexual diva (Marilyn Monroe), spiritual transcendence (Mother Teresa), and transcendent iconic female (Virgin Mary).

What four functions form the basis of Jungian Personality Types as shown in this table?

Thinking, Feeling, Sensation, and Intuition.

How many total personality types did Carl Jung derive by combining two attitudes (Introverted/Extroverted) with four functions?

8 personality types.

How does Carl Jung divide the human psyche?

Into the Ego, the Personal Unconscious (complexes), and the Collective Unconscious (archetypes).

What is the 'Collective Unconscious'?

An inherited reservoir of experiences of our species, memories, and archetypes common to mankind as a whole.

What is Archetypal Criticism?

A literary approach inspired by Jung that interprets texts based on recurring cultural and psychological myths, symbols, and character archetypes.

What is the central slogan/principle of Gestalt Theory?

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

What is Object-Relations Theory?

A post-Freudian theory studying childhood subject development in relation to objects, envisaging a satisfying harmony between needs and objects.

What were the birth and death years of Jacques Lacan?

1901–1981.

What famous call to action did Jacques Lacan issue in 1951 regarding psychoanalytic study?

A Return to Freud (a close reading of Freud's original texts).

What was Jacques Lacan's magnum opus published in 1966?

Écrits.

What is the core foundational proposition of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory?

The unconscious is structured like a language.

In which essay does Lacan detail his view that the unconscious functions through language and signifiers?

The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious, or Reason Since Freud.

Which short story by Edgar Allan Poe was analyzed by Lacan to demonstrate how a signifier moves through a chain of relationships?

The Purloined Letter.

What three registers of psychic structure are represented by the Borromean rings shown in this diagram?

The Real, the Imaginary, and the Symbolic.

What is Lacan's 'Real' register?

The pre-Mirror Stage state of nature and basic need prior to language, which resists representation and cannot be directly grasped.

Describe Lacan's 'Mirror Stage'.

The point where an infant identifies with its external reflection in a mirror, acquiring its first realization of bodily autonomy.

Why does Lacan describe the self-image formed in the Mirror Stage as a 'misrecognition' (méconnaissance)?

Because the ideal, whole mirror image does not correspond with the infant's actual experiential reality of being helpless or in bits and pieces.

Describe Lacan's 'Symbolic' register.

The realm containing the ordering structures of language, grammar, and social laws in which the subject is represented.

How did Lacan rewrite Saussure's formula for the linguistic sign, as shown in this image?

As $\frac{S}{s}$, placing capital signifier $S$ over lowercase signified $s$, separated by a bar showing how the signified slips beneath the signifier.

What concept does Lacan illustrate using the image of two restroom doors labeled 'Gentleman' and 'Lady'?

That signifiers do not completely match signifieds, showing that signification is always incomplete.

What is a 'Floating signifier' (or empty signifier)?

A signifier without any solid or fixed meaning, such as the concepts of race or gender.

What is Lacan's famous definition of 'desire'?

Desire is the desire of the Other.

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, what is the difference between the 'little other' ($a$) and the 'big Other' ($A$)?

The little other ($a$) is an imaginary reflection of the ego, while the big Other ($A$) is the symbolic realm of language and the law.

What does this symbol represent in Lacanian psychoanalysis?

The 'barred Other' ($\cancel{A}$), representing the castrated, incomplete Big Other that contains a Lack (manque).

Who co-authored the two-volume philosophical work Capitalism and Schizophrenia?

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

What are the titles and publication years of the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia?

Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus (1980).

What alternative clinical and theoretical approach did Deleuze and Guattari create as a critique of psychoanalysis and Marxism?

Schizoanalysis.

How does Schizoanalysis differ from traditional Freudian psychoanalysis?

It replaces authoritarian explanations and sexual focus with a social approach focusing on becoming, experimentation, and liberation.

What two structural models of knowledge are contrasted in this diagram?

The centered, hierarchical Tree model versus the non-hierarchical, centerless Rhizome model.

What example of a modern rhizomatic structure is provided in the lecture notes?

The Internet and Postmodern culture.

What is 'Minor Literature' as conceptualized by Deleuze and Guattari in relation to Franz Kafka?

Literature written by a marginalized minority within a dominant language that is creative of becoming and identity rather than mere expression.