Heart of Darkness: Psychoanalytic Criticism Essay -- Psychoanalysis Si

feeling of Darkness psychoanalytic CriticismPsychoanalytic criticism originated in the wrench of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious intellect. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to stimulate convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freuds most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, wishes and instinctual drives many of which have to do with sex activity and violence. These unconscious wishes, according to Freud, can find expression in dreams because dreams filter out the unconscious material and mak e it appear different from itself and more pleasing to consciousness. They may also appear in other disguised forms, comparable in language (sometimes c wholeed the Freudian slips), in creative art and in neurotic behavior. One of the unconscious desires Freud believed that all human beings supposedly subdue is the childhood desire to displace the parent of the same sex and to have his or her place in the affections of the parent of the opposite sex. This so-called Oedipus Complex, which all children experience as a rite of passage to adult sexual activity identity, lies at the core of Freuds sexual theory (Murfin 114-5).A fountainhead element in Freuds theory is his assignment of the mental processes to deuce-ace psychic zones the id, the self-importance and the superego. The id is the passional, irrational, and unconscious government agency of the psyche. It is the site of the animation of the mind, energy that Freud characterized as a combination of sexual libido and ot her instincts, such as aggression, that propel the human organism through life, moving it to grow, develop and in conclusion to die. That primary process of life is completely irrational, and it cannot distinguish reasonable objects and overweening or socially unacceptable ones. Here comes the secondary processes of the mind, lodged in the ego and the superego. The ego, or I, was Freuds term for the predominantly rational, logical, orderly and conscious part of the psych... ...ut Librairie Du Liban Publishers SAL, 1994. Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 4th ed. New York Oxford University Press, 1999.Hewitt, Douglas. Conrad A Reassessment. terra firma Literature Criticism. Ed. Polly Vedder. Vol. 4. Detroit Gale, 1992. 789-92. Hughs, Richard E. The Lively Image Four Myths in Literature. Cambridge, MA Winthrop Publishers, 1975.Karl, Frederick R. A Readers Guide To Joseph Conrad. World Literature Criticism. Ed. Polly Vedder. Vol. 4. Detroit Gale, 1992. 785-9. Leavis, F. R. From The Great Tradition. A Practical Reader in Contemporary Literary Theory. London reaper Wheatsheaf, 1996. 246-7 Mudrick, Marvin. The Originality of Conrad. World Literature Criticism. Ed. PollyVedder. Vol. 4. Detroit Gale, 1992. 782-5. Murfin, Ross C. Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness A Case deal in Contemporary Criticism. New York St. Martins Press, 1989. Sad, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York Knopf, 1979. Wright, Elizabeth. Psychoanalytic Criticism. Encyclopedia Of Literature And Criticism. 1991 ed. 765-7.