Psychoanalysis and Literature

Paper Summary:

Taking Freud's statement that "all life leads to death" as its starting point, this paper looks at the case studies of "Dora", "Katherina" and "The Wolf Man", examining the extent to which these can be compared to a fictional narrative, such as Poe's "The Muders in the Rue Morgue." The paper goes on to discuss how psychoanaltic theory can be applied to literature, with both the analyst and the author engaging in an attempt to "narrate" lives, bringing them to a satisfactory end point or conclusion.

From the Paper:

"Before the scene itself has been discovered, Freud describes the "unconscious memory traces" as being in a state of "chaos". He can only bring order from this apparent chaos once he has brought the element of narratability to the case history, and therefore to the analysand's life. Once this has been done, the Wolf Man's history has been brought to its symbolic death. In the same way that a great deal of fictional texts end with a literal death, or a marriage, the Wolf Man, like Dora, reaches the "death" of his own narrative by being "cured", and is then free to marry - which, Freud tells us, he does. "

More papers on Psychoanalysis and Literature:

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• Analytical Essay # 25369 : "Freudian Psychoanalysis as Literary Criticism"

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