Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide

Dr. Lois Tyson is an English professor at Grand Valley State University, where she has worked for over 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in French from Rutgers University, master’s degrees in education and English from Ohio University, and a PhD in English from Ohio State University. In addition to Critical Theory Today, she is the author of Psychological Politics of the American Dream: The Commodification of Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century American Literature (1994). There are four editions of Critical Theory Today, and it has been translated into many languages.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is the founder of psychoanalysis. He lived and worked in Vienna, Austria, from 1881. His work, known as “classical psychoanalysis,” is foundational to psychoanalytic critical theory and its application to literary works. Freud’s most “radical insight” is the theory that human behavior is driven by unconscious needs and desires that are repressed. By understanding the unconscious through psychoanalysis and dream analysis, one can correct dysfunctional, defensive behaviors. His theory was predicated on the analysis of family conflicts that shape our self-identity, such as the notion of sibling rivalry.