Reflection: Psychoanalysis Theory and Criticism 3/13/11

After the readings, Dr. Wexler’s extensive lecture, and class activities last week, I appreciate Sigmund Freud’s and Jacques Lacan’s contribution to literary theory and criticism more. The concept that the character, Hamlet, according to Dr. Wexler’s posit and take on Freudian psychoanalysis theory, procrastinated killing his uncle, Claudius, basically because he [unconsciously?] identifies with the uncle as having perpetrated the killing of Hamlet’s father, namely, the Oedipus complex, is a fascinating thought.  After seeing the five-minute clip of Mel Gibson’s portrayal of Hamlet along with his mother Gertrude, played by Glenn Close, it fits with Freud’s explication quite well. It appears that Hamlet’s Id is finally winning the struggle with his Superego in creating a very disturbed Ego: Hamlet’s murder of Polonius, and Hamlet’s crazed emotions then sexual moments with his mother. I look more forward to reading Hamlet in a Shakespeare course here at CSUN—the first and last time I had read it was 1966 in a college class in New York City—and explicating it from a psychoanalysis theory perspective.

The two family portraits by Peale (1778-1860) and Bellei (1857-1922) that Dr. Wexler showed us led to an interesting discussion of the family members’ psychological states.  There were a lot of illuminatingly different analyses by class members, which makes me ponder, now, as to what artists consciously feel when painting and how much is unconscious.  Peale lived prior to Freud’s (1856-1939) theories, whereas, Bellei   was Freud’s contemporary. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Bellei’s painting is more spontaneous, more revealing of emotions, and less in a “posing” mode  than Peale’s painting.

During class, I agreed wholeheartedly with Dr. Wexler’s statement that Freud “kicks man off his ‘enlightenment’ pedestal,” for example, Immanuel Kant’s imploring us to use our consciously mature minds more and rely less on other people’s minds, similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson discourse on Self-Reliance. However,  according to Freud, our actions, or lack of, are predicated or controlled more by our unconscious mind. Freud’s psycho-sexual development stages make a lot of sense to me; however, I want to know more about why Carl Jung departed from Freud’s theory.  Same with Lacan, whom I want to read again, and who departs from Freud’s “castration theory” and discourse, and is another major contributor to psychoanalysis theory. Also, I want to learn more as to why Freud was criticized by later theorists as having “bourgeois” tendencies and theories. It stands to reason that Freud was  from a patriarchal dominated time and that later psychoanalysis theorists probably delve into psychoanalysis more equally from feminist’s perspective.