Psychoanalysis theory
Psychoanalysis Theory most typically examines the internal mental states, the desires, and the motivations of literary characters or of the authors themselves, considering the possible unconscious urges that may have driven an author to write a particular text.
CONSCIOUS LEVEL
PRECONSCIOUS LEVEL
UNCONSCIOUS LEVEL
ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
KEY TERMS AND IDEAS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY
CONSCIOUS LEVEL
- Holds what you're aware of
- Can verbalize and think about logically
PRECONSCIOUS LEVEL
- Ordinary memory - can easily be pulled out
UNCONSCIOUS LEVEL
- "Dumping ground"
- Urges, desires - not directly accessible
- This is where the work of the ID, the ego, and the super-ego take place.
ID
- Irrational and emotional part of your mind
- WANT, WANT, WANT
- Primitive mind
- ID = child
- Libidinal energy
- Sexual energy
- Pleasure principal
- Idea that all you can strive for is instant gratification
EGO
- Rational part of mind
- Growing awareness that you can't always get what you want
- Meet the pleasures of the ID but understand the long-term consequence
- Ego = adult
- Reality principal
- Need for compromise but not a total denial of need
SUPEREGO
- The last part of your mind to develop
- The moral part of your mind
- Embodiment of parental and societal views
- Stores and enforces rules
- Made of two sub systems:
- Ego Ideal
- The gold standard for good behavior
- Conscience
- Provides rules for what constitutes bad behavior
- Ego Ideal
KEY TERMS AND IDEAS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY
- Unconscious - where painful experiences are stored
- Projection - ascribing a fear, desire, or problem onto someone else and then condemning them for it
- Libidinal Images - sexual and gendered images and their meanings
- Phallic - male imagery (guns, rockets, arrows, towers, swords, etc)
- Yonic - female imagery (cage, rooms, walled gardens, etc)