Psychoanalytic Theory by Betsy Durning

Authorial Intention & Professional opinion

2024-09-18 18:30:10 UTC

This is actually pretty funny since we have a class here that focuses on authors vs. unreliable narrators- I wanted to take it eventually. I think the main thing with this is that while you cannot fully base an interpretation on what you think the author is trying to convey, there is merit in looking at how their life influences the text- not determines the overall meaning. In a way, it is psychoanalyzing another system in relation to your chosen literary work.

Understanding Emotions

2024-09-18 18:30:31 UTC

How people are feeling and their motivations behind their actions can be helpful in understanding their personality and how they've been affected by their experiences.

Dream Symbolism

2024-09-18 18:30:32 UTC

I found it interesting that different dreams symbolize aspects of ones life and psychoanalytic makeup.

The meaning of death

2024-09-18 18:31:08 UTC

This one is super interesting- and not very well understood. There's this idea that people have a death drive- an almost natural instinct to seek some sort of oblivion- Thanatos. While this can explain some self-destructing behaviors, there is also more meaning to it. ot offers key ideas i n our fears such as the ones listed over there- One in particular is the fear of abandonment- even if you are in a room filled with loved ones, all of us die our own individual death. This is also something that gives practices such as religion great satisfaction to us, the idea that some entity will not abandon us in the end. Another to consider is the fear of intimacy, physical or emotional, and how the thought process is if "I don't let myself get too close to ones I love, then I won't be so devastated when I lose them" (page 87)

Repression

2024-09-18 18:32:08 UTC

When attempting to push aside negative feelings, through repression, I learned that it can not only result in unhealthy behaviors toward yourself and others but also nightmares that portray some defense mechanisms.

Unconscious behavior

2024-09-18 18:32:13 UTC

I learned the system of which different events or situations can ultimately manifest themselves into self-destructive behavior or different types of dreams. Also how powerful our unconscious is, and how it can affect our daily lives.

Understanding the system of psychology

2024-09-18 18:32:33 UTC

As far as I can gather from the reading, here is what I think the overall "sequence of events" is so to speak. (1) A distressing event happens in youth {not limited to} and we repress it into our unconscious, (2) we keep said experience in the unconscious by our defense techniques, (3) Once this starts to affect your life enough, this becomes a core issue- it can determine a great deal of both overall personality and behavior

Dream Symbolism

2024-09-18 18:32:40 UTC

It is important to be aware of the true meanings behind our dreams to understand and learn more about ourselves. By learning the significance behind even the smallest details, we can then try to depict our own subconscious.

Id, Ego, Superego

2024-09-18 18:32:47 UTC

By looking through Freuds theory, we can uncover the motives of ones actions. If someone does something due to natural instinct, it can be classified as id. If someone does something do to their conscious, it can be seen as ego. Lastly, if someone does something due to cultural norms and morals, it is recognized through their superego.

Understanding

2024-09-18 18:33:04 UTC

By learning more about how humans tend to process feelings, we can better understand ourselves and work to recognize and change unhealthy behaviors.

The role of our subconscious

2024-09-18 18:33:27 UTC

I have heard a lot aboud how the subconscious influences our perception on how we view characters and life itself. The reading makes me wonder how much the subconscious really does impact our perspective. Maybe we could find this out by collecting data on whether we favored another character because of x, y, or z. I just think it would be cool to know how much of a role our subconscious plays in our everyday life through statistics.

Comparison

2024-09-18 18:33:30 UTC

How does psychoanalytic theory affect the authorial intent of a story? Are interpretations of the characters through a psychoanalytic lens biased/impacted by reader response?

Understanding people better

2024-09-18 18:34:00 UTC

The text talks about how a loved one could be in denial of an event due to a past experience. Knowing about this lens may help one recognize this occurrence more often.

Psychoanalytic theory can show how complex a character is.

2024-09-18 18:34:07 UTC

Character's motives can be broken down, and analyzed, but psychoanalytic theory hits that we may never know all the true reasoning behind a characters motives, due to our lack of knowledge regarding things like their dreams, trauma, backgrounds, defences, ETC

Explanation behind actions

2024-09-18 18:34:13 UTC

This can be an important tool to readers as most commonly characters have depth which explains their choice of actions, and with using this lens, it helps the reader understand why the character did what they did.

The absence of problems

2024-09-18 18:34:31 UTC

What does a problem free childhood look like and does it result in a problem free adult who can handle emotions? When is something too easy or too problem free?

Lack of Psychological Awareness

2024-09-18 18:35:26 UTC

When we are unaware of our psychological problems, we are vulnerable to them. When not being aware of our own psych, we tend to let life play out and our patterns stay constant which could have a negative impact on our relationships with other people.

Full Understanding

2024-09-18 18:35:31 UTC

How can one acknowledge the hidden event or meaning of something knowing that it was altered due to using the psychoanalytic lens?

Unconscious Biases

2024-09-18 18:35:42 UTC

I found it interesting how much your childhood experiences affect your personality and adult life and how traumatic experiences can create blind spots.

The importance of knowing our mind

2024-09-18 18:35:54 UTC

By learning how our minds function and how our decisions are influenced, we can become more innovative. By acknowledging bias, the subconscious, our ego, and many more factors, we can control our biases and our everyday decisions.

I wonder

2024-09-18 18:36:26 UTC

I have always heard about dreams being broken down and analyzed in therapy, but I still don't know if its true. This is touched upon in the recent chapter. Characters in literature, though, have infinite possibilities, and their dreams could directly mean what we think they do.

Dysfunctional Behavior

2024-09-18 18:37:31 UTC

I learned a lot about the concept of dysfunctional behavior. It was interesting how one event in the past can cause problems for us in the future. This behavior can be caused by repressing our least wanted memories into our unconscious. The problems that repressing feelings can cause are putting ourselves at risk, getting into trouble, or hurting the ones we love. I then learned that there is a way to heal these underlying problems. This topic is also related to nature vs. nurture because underlying feelings that are repressed from our past can cause our personality to be based on nurture.