Psychoanalytic criticism

Psychoanalytic criticism builds on Freudian theories of psychology. The unconscious, desires, our defenses, id, ego, superego, and the Oedipus complex are all examples of Freudian areas of study that you could apply to the text. Put simply, some critics believe that we can “…read psychoanalytically…to see which concepts are operating in the text in such a way as to enrich our understanding of the work and, if we plan to write a paper about it, to yield a meaningful, coherent psychoanalytic interpretation” (Tyson 29). How can characters’ behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind (Ex. fascination with honor, the operations of ego-id-superego)? What family dynamics are at work here? What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the psychological motives of the reader? Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these ” words”? (Ex. Did Shakespeare focus so many characters on the idea of honor because of his own struggle with the concept of honor?)