Psychological approach

The psychological approach is a unique form of criticism in that it draws upon psychological theories in its interpretation of a text.
Psychological Analysis, in its simplest form, is the dissection of an author’s works and the use of these parts to understand their subconscious

1. Psychological Criticism Prepared by Dr. T. Lilly Golda Assistant Professor of English A.P.C. Mahalaxmi College for Women, Thoothukudi

2. What is Psychology? Psychology is a field of study that focuses on human mind, behaviour , and experiences. It is both an academic discipline and applied science which pursues to interpret a group or individual by means of founding principles through case study and research.

3. Impact of Freud Freud’s Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex The Interpretation of Dreams A. A. Brill’s translations in 1910 & 1912 Dr. Ernest Jones’ Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery

4. Freudian theory Literary Naturalism Man is a victim of environment Man is sick rather than villainous French Symbolists & Experimentalists – method of the unconscious

5. Impact of Psychology upon literature Adler’s concept of inferiority complex Jung’s theory of collective unconscious Those influenced by Freud Lawrence, Mann, Sherwood Anderson May Sinclair, Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Graham Green, Dylan Thomas

6. Psychology vs Puritanism & Victorianism Randolph Bourne’s The Puritan’s Will to Power He attempts to destroy the retention of traditional values. He attacks the puritanical spirit which celebrates denial and attacks freedom and expressiveness of the full person.

7. Psychology in literary criticism Those who popularized the psychological approach: Concord Aiken’s Skepticisms : Notes on Contemporary Poetry Max Eastman Floyd Dell Robert Graves’ use of W . H. River’s theory of the conflict of unconscious personalities Herbert Read’s Reason and Romanticism

8. Application of psychological knowledge to art Three kinds of illumination Aesthetic experience Literary biography Explaining fictitious characters

9. Application of psychological knowledge to art Aesthetic experience I . A. Richards’ Principles of Literary Criticism Kenneth Burke’s Antony in Behalf of the P lay

10. Application of psychological knowledge to art Literary biography Study of the lives of authors as a means of understanding their art Edmund Wilson’s The Wound and the Bow

11. Application of psychological knowledge to art Explaining fictitious characters F . L. Lucas Literature and Psychology Ernest Jones’ Study of Hamlet Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw

12. Limitations of the Psychological Approach O ver simplification Van Wyck Brook’s The Ordeal of Mark Twain 1920 Lewisohn’s Expression in America 1934 Art is different from dream; art can b e controlled, dream cannot be Lionel Trilling, Kenneth Burke