Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Carl Gustav Jung and Jacques Lacan.
The basic tenets of psychoanalysis include the following:
*human behavior, experience and cognition are largely determined by innate and irrational drives; those drives are largely unconscious;
*attempts to bring those drives into awareness meet psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms;
*beside the inherited constitution of personality, one's development is determined by events in early childhood;
*conflicts between conscious view of reality and unconscious (repressed) material can result in mental disturbances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety, depression etc.
*the liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness (via e.g. skilled guidance).
Under the broad umbrella of psychoanalysis there are at least 22 theoretical orientations regarding human mental development. The various approaches in treatment called "psychoanalysis" vary as much as the theories do. The term also refers to a method of studying child development.
Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the analytic patient verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems. In its emphasis on discovery of the source of symptoms, psychoanalysis is first and foremost a method of interpretation.
Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism and The Frame of Literary Reading in Psychoanalysis psychoanalytic literary criticism is