Some Useful Ways to Apply Psychoanalytic Tools
To Literature
1
To describe mental operations in linguistic terms, or conversely, to describe literary dynamics in psychological terms.
Example: the similarity between condensation and metaphor, and between displacement and metonymy.
2
To focus on the ways that subjectivity is shaped by representations.
Example: In The Awakening Edna perceives a finite number of options for herself that are related to a kind of representational system. She can be like Ratignolle or like Reiz or like a character in a Romance, but other possibilities are not perceived because they are not represented to her. In psychoanalytic terms, there are a limited number of people and images of people that she can identify with.
3
To discuss ways that people may be divided against themselves.
Example: to the extent that Claudius has usurped his father's place as King, Hamlet cannot attack Claudius without attacking Kingship and, on some level, his father. His unconscious allegiances are at odds with his conscious desires.
4
To discuss multiple, equally plausible causes for the same event. (the notion is that mental and representational events often have more than a single cause). The psychoanalytic term for this is overdetermination.
Example: Warren dreamt he was Mulder last night because he was worried about Mulder being dead (and to the extent Warren identifies with Mulder, this would mean that Warren, too, can die). And because he has finished grading papers and the season finale is similarly unresolved. And because Warren feels persecuted by obscure cultural forces. And because . . .
5
To discuss how desire operates in representations, both for characters and for readers and viewers.
In Lacanian discourse, the most important concepts are lack and wholeness. In Lacan's view, lack is intrinsic to subjectivity because subjectivity is built on a gap between an experience of fragmentation and an image of wholeness. Humans pursue wholeness by pursuing an endless stream of supplements make themselves complete. While this can seem tragic, it also encourages us to get tons of stuff done as we pursue integration.
6
To discuss the ways that embodiment is portrayed, especially images of desirable and undesirable bodies. Some of the key terms here are wholeness and integrity (beautiful bodies) and abjection and effluvia (undesirable bodies).
Desirable bodies that the culture (ad industry, etc.) invites us to pursue or identify are coded in terms of wholeness, bodily integrity, control, and a kind of immortality (the airbrushed body, the body without blemish or flaw, the body as porcelain perfection).
Undesirable bodies highlight the body's materiality (girth, emaciation, decay) or lack of control (pimples, awkwardness). Especially important is the notion of effluvia, those excretions that blur the line between subject and object: snot, pus, sweat, menses, excrement, vomit, etc. At what point do these cease to be "me" and become "it"? Those bodies whose materiality is culturally highlighted are abject. Effluvia and abjection are developed and discussed by French Feminist and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva in her book Powers of Horror.
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