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.