Gail T. Houston

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Gail T. Houston
Psychoanalytic Criticism

• Presented By Connie Myerson

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Agenda

• Key Concepts (20 min)
• Comparison to and
• Review and Discuss

Austin Powers
Marnie
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Why do I have to know about
Psychoanalytic Criticism?

• Studying P.C. offers a variety of ways to read a
  text in order to
• Focus attention on the unconscious activity at
  hand
• See how sexuality, desire, and repression are a
  part of culture
• Understand the formation of identity
  (male/female)

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What is Freudian Psychoanalysis?

• From 1856 to 1938 a psychologist named Sigmund
  Freud worked to explain the functions of the
  psyche. He ended up creating a whole new form of
  psychology called psychoanalysis. He did this by
  studying the unconscious and how our unrealized
  desires feed into our actions and work.

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Freuds Models of the Psyche

• Dynamic
• Economic
• Topographical

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Dynamic Model

• Conflict between two forces
• The external reality
• (conscious)
• Instictual drives
• (unconscious)

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Economic Model

• Pleasure Principle
• (bodily drives for pleasure)
• vs.
• Reality Principle
• (the practical concerns of society)

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Topographical Model

• Freuds Topographical Model is the most widely
  known today, encompassing such constructs as the
  Id, Ego, and Superego.
• Id- represents powerful natural instincts and
  bodily urges (the child)
• Superego- parenting structure restricting
  instincts and urges
• Ego- mediates between the Id and the Superego

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Topographical Model (cont.)

• In this model the ego tries to balance natural
  instincts and urges of the Id with the strict
  parenting of the Superego
• Some of these urges still manage to break through
  in eruptions termed return of the repressed
• Such eruptions may show up as Freudian slips,
  phobias and as we will cover later on, fetishes.

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The Birds and the Bees (According to Freud!)
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Five Stages to Reaching Sexual Maturity

• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic (Oedipus/Castration/Electra Complexes)
• Latency
• Genital

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Oral Stage

• When the subject is in the oral stage the mouth
  is the dominant erotogenic site. Sucking a
  mothers breast comes to represent a state of
  oneness with the mother, as well as a sense of
  total bodily satisfaction

• not maturing correctly from this stage can lead
  to oral fixations (always having fingers in
  mouth/chewing gum continuously)

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Anal Stage

• The child realizes he is separate from the
  mother-both fears and likes this independence
• To illustrate this independence they can control
  their own bowel movements. Because of this the
  anal region becomes the predominant erotogenic
  region.

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Anal Stage (cont.)

• The child also can realize control over their
  parents by not controlling their bowels
• Becoming fixated in this stage may lead to anal
  retentiveness (exerting control over things since
  they couldnt in their childhood)

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Phallic Stage

• Child discovers the pleasure involved in the
  stimulation of the penis or clitoris
• This discovery can lead to several complexes such
  as
• Oedipus Complex
• Castration Complex
• Electra Complex

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Oedipus Complex

• The boy subconsciously desires to kill the rival
  father and marry the mother

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Castration Complex

• Crucial event in which the boy sees a
  relationship between the mothers lack of a penis
  and his fathers threat to punish the boys
  sinful behavior. The boy thinks the father has
  castrated the mother and in fear therefore
  abandons his love for his mother and accepts his
  father as the masculine role model.

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Electra Complex

• Freud tended to be very sexist in his studies and
  therefore did not have many theories as to
  complexes of women except one
• He thought that at some point during the phallic
  stage that the girls wanted to kill there mothers
  because they were in love with their fathers,
  just like boys who were suffering from the
  Oedipal Complex

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Latency Stage

• After passing successfully through their
  complexes young boys and girls will enter the
  latency stage where their sexual desires will be
  put on hold (between ages of 5 and 12)

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Genital Stage (yes its the last one!!!)

• Freud believed that heterosexual orientation
  would be enforced by the Oedipus and Castration
  complexes, therefore leading a child into the
  mature phase of sexual organization.
• This phase completed the childs growth to
  maturity
• Note Freud believed the foundation for society
  was the heterosexual-headed family unit

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France's Freud

• Jacques Lacan

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Jacques Lacan

• Foremost French psychoanalytic, he devised a
  theory involving 4 groups of conflict, comparable
  to Freuds Id, Ego, and Superego
• The Real, Imaginary, Symbolic Order, and the
  Phallus as a signifier

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The Real

• Actual world which is unknowable to the
  individual
• People are subjects-subjected to many rules and
  can never experience the Real or merge with it

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The Imaginary

• Utopian state of oneness with the mother
• World of images, fantasy, and wish
  fulfillment-mirror stage
• Thinks mother fulfills all desires when in
  reality she never has-this is what we pursue in
  future sexual relationships
• Ego or unified self does not exist

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The Symbolic Order

• Realm in which child learns to use language and
  becomes subject to the fathers rule
• Speaker is subject to language rather than the
  master of it
• Language actually obstructs understanding
• Breaks bond between child and mother, child is
  subjected to father who imposes societies laws

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The Phallus as a Signifier

• Biological penis and phallus are two separate
  things
• Phallus represents existence and worth to Lacan--
  it is also a symbl of language and rules over
  the person
• Women lack this making them more worthless and
  have less control over their world

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Review

• Freud
• 5 stages
• Oral
• Anal
• Phallic
• Latency
• Genital

• Lacan
• 4 worlds
• Real
• Imaginary
• Symbolic Order
• Phallus as a signifier

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Review (cont.)

• How do Freud and Lacan compare and contrast?
• How do these topics relate to Marnie and Austin
  Powers?

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