Psychoanalysis: A Core Theory Included in the MPhil English Course

Psychoanalysis: A Core Theory Included in the MPhil English Course

1. PSYCHOANALYSIS
Dr. Ilyas Babar Awan
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These slides have been prepared in accordance with NUML’s MPhil English course outline

2. The Development of Psychoanalytic Criticism
Origins in Freud’s Theories (Late 19th –Early 20th Century)
Psychoanalytic criticism originates from the ideas of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939),
the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud explored how the unconscious mindshapes
human behavior, dreams, and creative expression.
His key ideas include:
•The unconscious:a hidden realm of desires, fears, and repressed experiences.
•The structure of personality:id (instincts), ego (reality), and superego (morality).
•Dream analysis:literature, like dreams, expresses disguised wishes and anxieties.

3. Oedipus complex
The child’s unconscious desire for the opposite-sex parent and rivalry
with the same-sex parent, used famously in analyzing Hamlet.
Freud’s works, such as The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and Creative
Writers and Day-Dreaming(1908), became foundational for literary
psychoanalysis.
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4. Early Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism
(1910s–1930s)
Early critics began applying Freudian ideas to literature by:
•Studying authors’ works as expressions of their personal neuroses or repressed
desires.
•Treating characters as if they were real people whose unconscious motives could be
analyzed.
Example: Ernest Jones’s analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1910) interpreted
Hamlet’s delay in avenging his father as rooted in the Oedipus complex.
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5. .Expansion Beyond Freud (1930s–1950s)
Other psychoanalysts expanded or modified Freud’s concepts:
•Carl Jungintroduced the idea of the collective unconscious and
archetypes, leading to mythic and symbolic approaches in literary
studies.
•Alfred Adleremphasized feelings of inferiority and compensation,
influencing character analysis in fiction.
•Otto Rankand Erich Frommalso brought cultural and social dimensions
to psychoanalytic reading.

6. The New Directions: Lacanian Psychoanalysis
(1960s–1970s)
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981)reinterpreted Freud through the lens of
structuralism and linguistics.
Key ideas:
•“The unconscious is structured like a language.”
•Literature becomes a space where desire, language, and identityinteract.
•The mirror stageexplains the formation of the self through identification and
misrecognition. Lacan’s theory shifted psychoanalytic criticism from studying
authors’ psychology to exploring language, desire, and subjectivitywithin texts.

7. Feminist and Postmodern Adaptations
(1970s–Present)
Feminist theorists such as Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and Hélène Cixous
blended psychoanalysis with feminism:
✓They questioned Freud’s male-centered views of sexuality.
✓They explored how language and desireshape women’s identity and
expression.
✓Contemporary critics use psychoanalysis to study:
✓Reader response (the reader’s unconscious desires).
✓Cultural symbols, trauma, repression, and identity.
✓Films, advertisements, and digital media, not just literature.

8. Summary Table
Phase Main Figures Focus
Classical (1900–1930s) Freud, Ernest Jones
Author’s psyche; Oedipus
complex; dream
symbolism
Neo-Freudian (1930s–
1950s)
Jung, Adler, Fromm
Archetypes; cultural
psyche; inferiority
Structuralist
Psychoanalysis (1960s–
1970s)
Lacan
Language, desire, identity
formation
Feminist/Postmodern
(1970s–Present)
Kristeva, Irigaray, Cixous
Gender, language, body,
identity politics

9. Sigmund Freud and His Basic Terminologies
Freud’s Central Idea
Freud’s work is based on the belief that unconscious motives and
repressed desires largely shape human behavior and creativity.
In literature, this means a text often expresses what the author has
suppressed or disguised, revealing the workings of the unconscious
mindthrough characters, symbols, and actions.

10. The Structure (or Models) of the Human Psyche
Freud explained the mind through three interacting systems—id, ego, and superego—each representing
distinct aspects of human personality.
Component Description Governing Principle Example
Id
The primitive, instinctual part
of the mind. It seeks immediate
satisfaction of desires
(especially sexual and
aggressive drives).
Pleasure principle –
demands instant
gratification.
A child crying for food
immediately; a character driven
by impulse.
Ego
The rational, realistic part that
mediates between the id and
the external world.
Reality principle –
delays gratification to
act appropriately.
A person planning how to satisfy
desires in a socially acceptable
way.
Superego
The moral conscience,
representing internalized social
rules and parental authority.
Moral principle – judges
and restrains the id.
Feeling guilty after breaking rules
or lying.

11. The Pleasure Principle and the Reality Principle
1.The pleasure principle(id) seeks immediate enjoyment, avoiding
pain.
2.The reality principle(ego) teaches the individual to defer pleasure
until it can be achieved safely or acceptably. Freud saw civilization
itself as a compromise between these two drives.
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12. The Stages of Psychosexual Development
1.Oral stage(birth–18 months): pleasure from sucking/eating.
2.Anal stage(18 months–3 years): pleasure from control and elimination.
3.Phallic stage(3–6 years): discovery of genitals; source of the Oedipus and
Electra complexes.
4.Latency stage(6–puberty): sexual feelings are dormant.
5.Genital stage(puberty onward): mature sexual expression.
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13. Oedipus and Electra Complexes
1.Oedipus complex:A boy’s unconscious desire for his mother and
jealousy of his father (named after Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex).
2.Electra complex:A girl’s unconscious desire for her father and
rivalry with her mother (named after Electra in Greek myth).
These desires are repressed during the phallic stagebut continue
to shape adult relationships and behavior.
Example: Hamlet’s hesitation to kill Claudius is seen by Freudians as
a sign of repressed Oedipal guilt.
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14. The Castration Complex
During the phallic stage, the child fears punishment (castration)
from the same-sex parent for forbidden desires toward the opposite-
sex parent. This fear causes the child to repress those desires and
identify with the same-sex parent, forming the foundation of gender
identity and moral development.
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15. Neurosis
When desires and fears are repressed but not resolved, they
reappear indirectly through neurotic symptoms, anxiety, obsession,
or symbolic behavior.
In literature, neurosis may appear as a character’s irrational
actions, dreams, or fixations.
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16. Cathexis (plural: Cathexes)
Freud used this term for the emotional energy or
psychic investment attached to a person, object, or idea.
For example, a character may invest emotional energy
(cathexis) in a symbol, like a portrait or ring, which
represents repressed feelings.
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17. Freudian Slips
Also called “parapraxes”, these are unconscious errors in speech,
writing, or action, revealing hidden thoughts or desires.
Example: saying “I’m glad you’re dead—I mean, here!” might show
repressed hostility.
Peter Barry explains that critics look for similar “slips” in texts —
contradictions, symbols, or jokes that reveal repressed meanings.
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18. Literary Application
Psychoanalytic critics often:
✓Treat literary works like dreams, expressing disguised wishes.
✓Interpret symbols, images, and slips in the text as manifestations of the
unconscious.
✓Focus on the author’s or character’s repressed desiresrather than the
surface plot.
✓Barry summarizes this approach as “a reading between the lines,and
beneath the surface,of the text.
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19. Summary Table
Term Meaning Literary Example
Id Instinctual desires Macbeth’s ambition
Ego Rational mediator Hamlet’s hesitation
Superego Moral conscience
Guilt in Crime and
Punishment
Pleasure
Principle
Drive for instant gratification
Dorian Gray’s pursuit of
pleasure
Oedipus Complex
Desire for mother, rivalry with
father
Hamlet–Gertrude–
Claudius relationship

20. Carl Gustav Jung and His
Terminologies
(personal conscious, personal unconscious, collective
unconscious, archetypes, anima, animus)
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21. Introduction: Jung’s Position in Psychoanalytic
Criticism
Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), originally a follower of Freud, later developed his own
system of analytical psychology.While Freud emphasized the personal unconscious
(individual desires and repressed experiences), Jung expanded the idea to include the
collective unconscious, a shared psychic layer common to all humanity.
Jung’s ideas shifted psychoanalytic criticismfrom focusing on the author’s personal
neuroses to exploring universal myths, symbols, and archetypes found in all literatures
and cultures.
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22. The Structure of the Psyche (According to Jung)
Level Description
The Personal Conscious
The part of the mind that contains thoughts, memories, and
experiences of which we are aware our everyday awareness
or ego-consciousness.
The Personal Unconscious
Contains forgotten or repressed experiences unique to each
individual similar to Freud’s unconscious but limited to
personal life.
The Collective Unconscious
The deepest layer of the psyche; it is universal and inherited,
not personal. It holds the archetypes primal images and
patterns shared by all humans, such as the hero, mother,
shadow, and wise old man.
Jung divides the human mind into three levels:

23. Collective Unconscious
The collective unconsciousis the central concept in Jung’s theory. It consists of
instinctive, mythic imagesthat reappear in dreams, myths, and art across all
cultures and times. Jung calls these archetypes, the recurring symbols and
situations that express deep psychological truths.
Examples:
•The flood mythappears in the Bible, in Gilgamesh, and in other ancient texts —
an archetype of purification and renewal.
•The hero’s journey(Odysseus, Beowulf, Frodo) symbolizes the individual’s
search for selfhood.
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24. Archetypes
Archetype Symbolic Meaning
The Hero
Courage, struggle, triumph over darkness (Oedipus,
Hamlet, Harry Potter)
The Mother
Nurture, protection, fertility (Mother Earth,
Madonna)
The Shadow
The darker, repressed side of personality (Mr. Hyde,
Macbeth’s ambition)
The Wise Old Man Wisdom, moral guidance (Merlin, Gandalf)
The Child
Innocence, potential, rebirth (Christ Child, Little
Prince)
According to Peter Barry, archetypes are “primordial images”timeless symbols or
patterns embedded in the collective unconscious that shape how we perceive the
world and create art. Common archetypes include:

25. Anima and Animus
Jung proposed that every individual contains both masculine and feminine elements within the
psyche:
•Anima:The feminine aspect within a man’s unconscious, representing emotion, intuition, and
receptivity.
•Animus:The masculine aspect within a woman’s unconscious representing reason, logic, and
assertiveness. Integration of anima and animus leads to psychic wholeness.
In literature, these appear as symbolic figures:
1.A man’s anima might appear as a mysterious woman guiding or disturbing him (Dante’s Beatrice,
Shakespeare’s Ophelia).
2.A woman’s animus might appear as an authoritative or spiritual male figure (Jane Eyre’s Mr.
Rochester).

26. Jungian Literary Criticism
Jung’s theories influenced archetypal literary criticism, which looks for
recurring myths, patterns, and symbols across texts and cultures.
Main goals of Jungian criticism:
•To trace universal myths and symbolsin literature.
•To show how texts express shared human fears and desiresrather than purely
personal ones.
•To interpret a literary work as a manifestation of the collective unconscious, not
merely the author’s individual psyche.
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27. Comparison with Freud
Aspect Freud Jung
Focus
Individual psyche and
repressed desires
Universal human psyche and
shared symbols
Unconscious
Personal, formed by
individual experience
Collective, inherited and
universal
Method
Dream analysis, sexuality,
neurosis
Mythic and symbolic analysis
Main Contribution
Oedipus complex,
repression
Archetypes, collective
unconscious
while Freud sees literature as disguised wish-fulfillment, Jung views it as a symbolic
revelation of universal psychic truths.

28. Summary Table
Concept Meaning Literary Example
Personal Conscious Awareness of thoughts and actions Jane’s rational self in Jane Eyre
Personal UnconsciousForgotten/repressed personal memoriesHamlet’s buried guilt and indecision
Collective UnconsciousShared psychic reservoir of humanity
Myths of death and rebirth across
cultures
Archetypes Universal recurring images and symbolsHero’s journey in Odyssey or Star Wars
Anima Feminine side of man’s psyche
Beatrice guiding Dante in Divine
Comedy
Animus Masculine side of woman’s psyche Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre

29. Northrop Frye and Archetypal
Criticism
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30. Introduction: Frye’s Contribution
Northrop Frye (1912–1991), a Canadian literary theorist, developed one of the most influential
forms of archetypal or mythic criticism.Frye extended the ideas of Carl Jung, especially the notion
of archetypes, to create a systematic literary theorythat sees literature as a self-contained world
of recurring myths, symbols, and narrative patterns.
Frye’s key insight:
“Literature grows out of myth and returns to myth. ”This means that every story, image, or symbol in
literature is connected to universal narrative structures rooted in ancient myth.
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31. Frye’s Central Concept: The Archetype
An archetype (from Greek archetypos, meaning “original pattern”) is a recurring
image, symbol, theme, or situationfound across different works and cultures.
•Archetypes are the “building blocks” of literature.
•They form a kind of literary grammarjust as language has syntax and structure,
literature has a network of mythic patterns.
•The critic’s task is to identify these archetypesand trace how they repeat and
transform through different genres and periods.
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32. Literature as a System of Myths
•Literatureis a unified system, not an assortment of isolated works.
Every literary text participates in a larger mythic pattern, such as:
•The death and rebirthmotif (seen in Hamlet, The Waste Land, The Old Man and the
Sea).
•The quest (from Odyssey to Lord of the Rings).
•The innocence–fall–redemptioncycle (from Genesis to Paradise Lost).
•Frye believed that identifying these patterns helps us understand the deeper symbolic
orderof literature.
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33. Frye’s Four Mythic Patterns (or Seasons)
Season Literary Mode Symbolic Theme Example
Spring Comedy
Rebirth, renewal, harmony
restored
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
Summer Romance
Triumph, ideal fulfillment,
quest achieved
The Faerie Queene, King
Arthur legends
Autumn Tragedy Decline, fall, isolation, deathHamlet, Macbeth
Winter Irony/Satire
Chaos, disintegration,
despair
Waiting for Godot, 1984
One of Frye’s most famous ideas, discussed in Anatomy of Criticism (1957) and summarized by Peter Barry, is his
seasonal mythos model. He relates the four major genres of literatureto the cycle of seasons, each
representing a stage of human experience. Thus, literature mirrors the cycle of nature and human life. Each
season expresses a mythic rhythm that recurs in every age and culture.

34. The Function of Archetypal Criticism
•Archetypal criticism seeks to discover the underlying mythic structure
common to all literary works.
•It moves away from individual authors or historical contexts, focusing instead
on literature as a collective imaginative universe.
•Frye aimed to provide a scientific, structural modelfor literary criticism, just as
linguistics provides a model for studying language.
•Frye’s theory “seeks to make criticism systematic rather than impressionistic.”
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35. Key Archetypes in Literature
:
Archetype Symbolic Meaning Example
Water Birth, cleansing, renewal The Flood, baptism scenes
Garden Innocence, paradise, fertility Eden, The Secret Garden
Desert/Wasteland Death, spiritual emptiness The Waste Land
Fire Destruction and purification Prometheus, Fahrenheit 451
Sun Enlightenment, vision, power King Lear (illumination)
Journey/Quest Search for identity or truth Odyssey, The Alchemist

36. Frye’s Influence on Literary Studies
Frye’s archetypal criticism:
•Bridges literary formand psychological symbolism(linking Jung’s psychology with
formalism).
•Provides a universal frameworkfor reading all literature.
•Encourages students to read texts intertextually, recognizing shared mythic patterns
rather than isolated meanings.
•Barry emphasizes that for Frye, the meaning of a work lies not in the author’s
intention or the reader’s response, but in its position within the total structure of
literary myth.
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37. Comparison with Jung
Aspect Jung Frye
Focus
Human psyche;
collective
unconscious
Literature as a
system of myths
Unit of Analysis
Archetypes in
dreams and myths
Archetypes in
literary genres
Goal
Understand human
mind
Build a unified
literary framework
Method
Psychological and
symbolic
Structural and
mythic

38. Summary of Frye’s Archetypal Theory
Concept Explanation
Archetype
A universal image or pattern appearing in myths,
literature, and art.
Mythos of the Seasons
Each literary genre corresponds to a season and
mood (comedy–spring, romance–summer,
tragedy–autumn, irony/winter).
Literature as a SystemAll texts are part of an interlinked mythic structure.
Purpose of Criticism
To uncover recurring archetypes and their cultural
significance.
Representative Work Anatomy of Criticism (1957)

39. Summary
Frye made mythic structurecentral to literary criticism.
•He turned archetypal criticism into a scientific study of
recurring patterns rather than mere thematic observation.
•Frye’s theory teaches that literature expresses universal
human experiences through archetypal formsshared across
time and culture.
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40. Jacques Lacan and His Major
Concepts
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41. Introduction: Lacan’s Reinterpretation of
Freud
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981)was a French psychoanalyst who reinterpreted Freud using
linguistics, semiotics, and structuralism.Lacan’s most famous statement, “The
unconscious is structured like a language,” summarizes his approach.
In literary criticism, Lacan shifted focus:
•From the author’s unconscious(Freud’s approach)
•To the text’s language and structureas the place where desire and meaning operate.
•Thus, for Lacan, reading literature is like reading the unconscious through language.
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42. The Three Orders of Experience
Lacan divides human psychological development into three interrelated
orders:
•The Imaginary
•The Symbolic
•The Real
These are not chronological stages but psychic realmsor modes of being
that continue throughout life.
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43. The Imaginary Order
•The Imaginary Orderbegins in infancy, before language.
•It is the realm of images, identification, and illusion of wholeness.
•The child experiences unity with the mother — no distinction between
“self” and “other.”
•This stage is dominated by visual imagesandfantasy, not words or reason.
• In literature, the Imaginary is seen in dreamlike imagery, illusions of
perfection, or idealized love.

44. The Mirror Stage
• The mirror stage occurs around 6–18months of age.
•The child sees its reflection in a mirror (or any image) and identifies with it as “me.”
•This recognition is joyful but also misleading. The image is whole, while the child’s actual body
feels fragmented and uncoordinated.
•Thus, the mirror image creates an illusion of coherence, which Lacan calls the Ideal-I (or Ideal
Ego), a false, imagined sense of self.
•The “I” is not discovered; it is constructed through misrecognition.
•In literary terms, this explains how characters (and even readers) form idealized self-images
that are ultimately illusions.
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45. The Ideal-I (Ideal Ego)
•The Ideal-I is the imaginary self formed in the mirror stage.
•It becomes the model for how the person wants to appear unified, stable,
and admired.
•However, this ideal self is always separated from the real self, creating
lifelong tension and desire for completeness.
•Many literary heroes or narrators reflect this tension; they strive for unity,
identity, or perfection that remains out of reach (Jay Gatsby, Frankenstein’s
monster, Hamlet).
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46. The Symbolic Order
After entering language, the child moves from the Imaginary to the Symbolic Order:
•This is the world of language, law, and social structure.
•The Father(or “Name-of-the-Father”) symbolizes authority, rules, and linguistic order that
separates the child from the mother.
•The ego is now defined through language and difference. We become who we are through
words and social relations, not inner essence.
•Symbolic Order:
•“The subject is spoken by language rather than speaking it.”
•So, meaning and identity are not fixedbut constructed through linguistic systemssimilar
to structuralism.

47. The Real Order
•The Real is the most complex of Lacan’s three realms.
The Real is outside language and representation.It is what resists
symbolization; it cannot be captured by words or images.
•It is the realm of raw experience, trauma, and the unspeakable.
•The Real can appear in literature as moments of shock, fragmentation, or
breakdown of meaningwhen language fails (e.g., death, violence, madness).
•It represents the limits of both the Imaginary and Symbolic.
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48. Objetpetit a (Object a)
•It is the object-cause of desire, something we continually seek but can never possess.
•It is not the object we desire (e.g., a person or thing) but the gapor lackthat keeps
desire alive.
•This explains why satisfaction never lasts: desire constantly moves to a new object.
In literature:
•The quest or pursuit motif (The Holy Grail, Gatsby’s Daisy, Don Quixote’s dream)
symbolizes the endless search for the objet petit a.
•Desire is infinite and unfulfilling, just like meaning in language.
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49. Summary of Lacan’s Major Concepts
Concept Description Literary Implication
Imaginary Order
World of images, illusion of unity;
pre-linguistic
Idealized identity, fantasy, dream
states
Mirror Stage
Infant identifies with mirror image,
forming ego
Misrecognition; creation of Ideal-I
Ideal-I (Ideal Ego) The false, perfect self-image
Characters’ search for
completeness (Gatsby, Hamlet)
Symbolic Order
Realm of language, law, and
culture; ruled by “Name-of-the-
Father”
Identity formed through language;
loss of wholeness
Objet petit a
The unattainable object of desire;
the cause of longing
The quest or unattainable love
motif
The Real
That which resists symbolization;
beyond words
Trauma, death, madness; language
collapse

50. Lacan’s Relevance in Literary Studies
Lacanian criticism focuses on:
✓Language and desirerather than character psychology.
✓Identity as fragmented, not unified.
✓Texts as symptomsof unconscious linguistic structures.
In short: “Freud reads the author; Lacan reads the text.”
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51. Summary in Simple Terms
Stage/Order Focus Keyword Example
Imaginary Images and illusion Fantasy Narcissus admiring his reflection
Mirror Stage
Self-recognition (false
unity)
Misrecognition The creation of ego
Symbolic Language and law Structure The world of social rules and words
Real Beyond representation Unspeakable Death, trauma, loss
Objet petit a Unattainable desire Lack Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy

52. Barry’s Final View
1.He redefines the unconscious as linguistic.
2.He replaces psychological unity with linguistic fragmentation.
3.He turns psychoanalytic criticism into a reading of language, desire,
and absence, not of biography.
4.Thus, Lacanian criticism reads literature as a mirror of the divided
self and language’s endless play of desire.
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53. Methodologies
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54. Summary Table
Approach Focus Key Theorists Main Concepts/Tools
Author-centered
Writer’s unconscious
mind
Freud
Dreams, repression, wish-
fulfillment
Character-centered Character’s psyche Freud Id, ego, superego; neurosis
Reader-centered Reader’s unconsciousPost-Freudian Projection, identification
Text-centered Language and desire Lacan
Mirror stage, symbolic,
real, desire
Archetypal
Universal myths and
patterns
Jung, Frye
Collective unconscious,
archetypes
Feminist
psychoanalytic
Gender and desire Kristeva, Irigaray
Body, language, symbolic
order

55. Critiques of Psychoanalytic
Theories
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56. Introduction
1.While psychoanalytic criticism has had a major influence on
literary studies, it has also faced serious criticismsfrom
various intellectual traditions, including philosophy, linguistics,
feminism, and poststructuralism.
2.Critics question both the scientific validityof Freud’s theories
and their applicability to literature.
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57. Major Criticisms
Lack of Scientific Basis
•Psychoanalysis is often criticized as unscientific and unverifiable.
•Freud’s theories (like the Oedipus complex or dream symbolism) are based
on case studies, not systematic evidence.
•They rely heavily on interpretation and speculation, which cannot be
tested or falsified.
•Critics: Karl Popper argued that Freudian psychoanalysis is not a science
because its claims cannot be proven wrong.
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58. Reductionism
•Psychoanalytic critics are accused of reducing complex works of artto mere
expressions of sexual desire or childhood trauma.
•Literature, which has aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical dimensions, is thus
oversimplified as a psychological symptom.
•Example: Reading Hamlet purely through the Oedipus complex ignores its
political, moral, and philosophical themes.
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59. Overemphasis on Sexuality
•Freud’s strong focus on sexual drives (libido) has been viewed as
excessive and outdated.
•Many scholars argue that human motivation includes social, cultural,
and spiritual elements beyond sexual desire.
•Critics:Feminists, Marxists, and cultural theorists have all challenged
this sexual bias
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60. Male-Centered and Gender-Biased
•Feminist theorists argue that classical psychoanalysis reflects a
patriarchal view of women.
▪Concepts like the “penis envy”and the Electra complexare seen as
misogynistic and based on male experience.
▪Critics:Simone de Beauvoir, Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray.
▪Response:Feminist psychoanalysis reinterprets Freud through a gender-
conscious lens.
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61. Neglect of Social and Historical Context
•Psychoanalysis focuses on the individual psyche, often ignoring the
historical, cultural, and politicaldimensions of literature.
•Critics argue that texts are shaped not only by inner drives but also by
social ideologiesand power structures.
•
Critics:Marxist and postcolonial theorists (e.g., Althusser, Said) point
out this limitation
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62. Language and Interpretation Problems
Poststructuralists (like Derrida and Foucault) question the stability of language
on which psychoanalysis depends.
•If meaning is unstable, as poststructuralism claims, then psychoanalytic
“readings” are just one interpretation among many, not the “truth” of the text.
Critics:Jacques Derrida’s essay “Freud and the Scene of Writing” questions the
reliability of Freudian discourse itself.
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63. Western-Centric and Culturally Limited
1.Freud’s theories emerged from Western, early 20th-century
bourgeois culture and may not apply universally.
2.Concepts such as Oedipal desire or repression may not fit the
psychological patterns of non-Western societies.

64. Internal Conflicts within Psychoanalysis
Even within psychoanalysis, there are deep divisions:
•Freud vs. Jung: individual unconscious vs. collective unconscious.
•Freud vs. Lacan: biological drives vs. linguistic structure of desire.
•Classical vs. Feminist psychoanalysis: male-centered vs. gender-inclusive
perspectives.
These internal debates show that psychoanalysis is not a unified theorybut
a cluster of evolving, sometimes conflicting models.

65. Modern Relevance
1.Despite these critiques, psychoanalysis remains influential because:
2.It provides tools to explore desire, repression, identity, and the
unconscious.
3.It offers insight into the symbolic and dream-like nature of literature.
4.Modern versions (especially Lacanian and feminist psychoanalysis) are
more flexible and linguistically sophisticated.
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66. Summary Table
Critique Main Objection Key Critics/Theories
Lack of science Not testable or empirical Karl Popper
Reductionism Reduces literature to psychologyHumanist critics
Sexual bias Overemphasis on libido Feminist critics
Gender bias Male-centered framework Irigaray, Cixous, Kristeva
Historical blindness Ignores context and ideologyMarxist, Postcolonial critics
Language instability Unreliable linguistic assumptionsDerrida, Foucault
Cultural limitation Western-centered assumptionsPostcolonial theorists
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