Psychoanalytic criticism tries to define the how's and why's of human actions without having a system of beliefs concerning how meaning occurs in literature. This theory is based on various models of the mind. Psychoanalytic criticism analyzes how human beings often fail to recognize the influence the unconscious has on our motivations and our everyday actions.
One of the most controversial psychoanalytic techniques used today comes from Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that all human behavior is sexually driven and can be found directly in a text. When critics use this method, they see objects such as a flower cup, cave or vase as symbolizing a female. Images of a sword, tower, knife or pen presents the male gender. Every action and image in the text are referred as sexual desires.
Carl C. Jung used archetypal criticism when analyzing texts. Archetypes are patterns or images of repeated human experiences such as birth, death, rebirth and the four seasons. These images are expressed in dreams and fantasies. Jung believes that by showing where and how these archetypes appear will help the reader understand the meaning of the text.
Jacques Lacan believed that for readers to figure out what the meaning of the text is they have to look at the elements of the Real, Imaginary and the Symbolic Order. After learning and understanding these orders the critic then would find out how each order applies to the self. The main purpose of the Lacan criticism is to teach us that a whole person doesn't exist and one must focus on fragments of the person.
Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. NewJersey:
Prentice-Hall Inc. 1994.
www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/freud.html
http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/4F70/psychthry.html
Go to my page to see Emily Dickinson's poem 280 analyzed by psychoanalitic criticism.