THEORY OF LITERATURE’S FINAL ASSIGNMENT;

PSYCHOANALYSIS IN LITERATURE

BY:

EKA MUSTIKAWATI (P0600214003)

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM

HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY

MAKASSAR

2014
Introduction

As a work of human creation, literature cannot be separated from the role of its
author’s psychology. Psychology and literature are related to each other. Literary works not
only created to be read by the whole world, but also as a medium to reveal some feelings
from the author. As we know, human life cannot be separated from feeling and soul.
Literary works created not only to entertain the reader, but through the expertise of the
author in arranging and processing the words, literary works can also be a work that can
give a lesson to learn and teach something to the reader.

Literature and psychology have the same role in our life. Both of them deal with the
problem of human as an individual and social being. Both of them also utilize the same
foundation, that is, makes the human experience as a study material. Therefore, the
psychological approach is considered as one of the important approaches in literature
research.

Psychology is derived from the Greek word psyche, which means soul, and logos
means science. So, psychology means the scientific study of the mind or the science that
investigates or studies human behavior (Atkinson, 1996: 7). While the literature is a form of
creative art which the object is life and human being. As a creative work, literature should be
able to produce beautiful creations and to distribute the needs of human beauty.

Psychoanalysis Theory – Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856) was born in Austria and died in London at the age of 83. He
was considered as controversial thinker in his environment because of his teachings,
especially about his theory related to sexual problems. His teachings are very influential for
thoughts in the 20th century until now, especially in the field of psychology. Freud, who was
neurology, constructs his ideas about psychological theories based on his own experiences
dealing with patients with psychiatric problems (Eagleton, 1996: 43).
 Psychoanalysis talks about unconscious mind; the concerns of this study are focused
on the areas of motivation, emotion, conflict, neurotic system, dreams, and character traits.
According to Freud, psychoanalysis is a method of medical treatment for those who suffer
from neurological disorders. Psychoanalysis is a type of therapy to treat someone who
suffers from mental and neurological aberrations.

Furthermore, Freud divided the form of human’s psychic into three parts, namely id,
ego, and superego. All these three systems are related to each other.

 Id
Id lies in the unconscious mind and it becomes the source of psychic energy.
Freud likened the id as a king or queen who should be respected and spoiled,
arbitrary and self-centered; people always do what they wanted (Minderop,
2010: 21). As a source of psychic energy, id pressing people to fulfill their basic
needs, such as eating or sexual needs, and rejecting pain or discomfort. Since
id belongs to the unconscious mind, it has no contact with reality. How it
works is related to pleasure principle, which is always looking for pleasure and
avoiding discomfort.
Id can only imagine something, without ability to distinguish the imagination
and reality. Id cannot distinguish between right and wrong, it does not know
which act that has value and which one that does not.
 Ego
Ego lies between the conscious and the unconscious, which serves as a
mediator to reconcile the pulse demands and superego prohibitions. Ego is
like a prime minister who has the task to finish all the work related to reality
and responsive to the desires of the community (Albertine, 2010: 21). Ego is
different from the id. According Koeswara (1991: 33-34), ego is the personality
system that acts as the individual influence to the reality objects and operates
its function as the reality principle. Ego helps people to consider whether they
can indulge without causing trouble or suffer for themselves. The purpose of
 the ego is to take place of the main mental functions, for example; logical
reasoning, problem solving and decision making. For this reason, the ego
becomes the major leader in personality; like a leader of one company who is
able to make rational decisions to make his company becomes the best
company in the world.
 Superego
Superego lies partly in the conscious mind and partly in the unconscious mind,
its function as a monitor and hamper of perfect gratification from an
achievement in life, such as; achievement in education, job, parents’ richness,
and so on. Superego is like a pastor or priest who was always aware of the
values of good and bad, which his job is to remind the greedy id about the
importance of behaving wisely.
The characteristic of superego is non-rational in demanding perfection. The
main functions of the superego are as follows:
a. As an impulse control or instinct control, so that the impulses are
transmitted in any way or form which can be accepted by society.
b. To direct the ego to morality than to reality.
c. Encourage individuals to perfection. Superego constantly forcing the ego
to suppress different desires into consciousness.

Thus, the superego tends to oppose the ego and the id and make the world according
to the ideal conception. The three aspects above have their own characteristics in practice,
but they are always interacting dynamically.

Psychoanalysis Theory – Carl Jung

Carl Jung was born on July 26, 1875, in a small village in Switzerland named Kessewil.
His father named Paul Jung, a country parson, and his mother named Emilie Preiswerk Jung.
After admired Freud in a long time, it was in 1907 he was finally able to meet him. The impact
of this meeting was incredibly amazing for these thinkers. Freud finally realized that Jung
was the “crown prince” of psychoanalysis and heir to his “throne”. But Jung did not fully
adhere to the Freud’s theory. Their relationship became wide apart in 1909, when both of
them went to America.

In his theory, Jung divided psyche (soul) into three parts, namely; ego, personal
unconscious and collective unconscious.

 Ego
Ego is the conscious soul consisting of perceptions, memories, thoughts, and
conscious feelings. Ego represents individual identity. In this case, the
definition of ego given by Jung has the same definition with the definition of
ego given by Freud. Ego has two principal components, namely function of
soul and attitude of soul.
 Function of soul
The function of soul, according to Jung, is a form of mental activity
which theoretically remains even though it is in different environment.
The function of soul can be divided into two parts; function of the
rational soul and function of irrational soul. The function of the rational
soul is the soul functions that work with assessment, consisting of;
thoughts (right or wrong) and feelings (pleasant or unpleasant).
Meanwhile the function of the irrational soul is the soul function that
works without an assessment, consisting of; sense (observation
consciously) and intuition (observation unconsciously).
According to Jung, basically every individual has all the functions of the
soul that already mentioned above, but there is only one dominant
function. That one dominant function then determines what kind of
individual that person would be.
  Attitude of soul
According to Jung, attitude of soul is the direction of psychic energy
(libido) that manifest in form of human orientation to the world. The
attitude of soul is divided into two parts, the extrovert attitude
(positive attitude towards society, outgoing and quick to adapt,
comfortable to be with others) and introverted attitude (tends to stay
away from the environment, weak in social adjustment, insecure, and
prefer inside activities).
 Personal unconscious
Personal unconscious contains things obtained by people during their life.
Personal unconscious consists of;
 Experiences that ever forgotten or ignored.
 Experiences that is too weak to form an impression of the personal
unconscious.
 Complexes are an organized groups or constellation of feelings,
thoughts, perceptions, and memories contained in the personal
unconscious. The complex has a core like a magnet to attract many
experiences to it.
 Collective unconscious
The collective unconscious is a heap of our experiences as a human, a kind of
collective knowledge that we were born with. However, this experience
cannot we realize directly. It affects all of our experience and behavior,
especially our feelings, but it can only be known indirectly through the effects
it caused. Knowledge of unconsciousness was obtained indirectly through the
manifestation rather than the content of the unconscious itself. The
manifestation of the unconscious can be formed as symptoms and complexes,
dreams, archetype.
  Symptoms and complexes
Symptoms and complexes are something that can still be realized.
Symptom is a danger sign that tells that there is something happen in
our consciousness mind, while the complex is part of the soul that has
been divided and separated from the control of consciousness and can
inhibit or increase the achievements of consciousness.
 Dreams, fantasies, and delusions
Dreams have their own laws and languages; in dreams, time and space
are not applicable, it has emblematic language, and therefore it needs
to be interpreted. For Jung, dreams have a constructive function that
is, to compensate the one-sided of conflict.
Besides dream, Jung also revealed about fantasy and delusion as a
form of unconscious manifestation. Both of them has something to do
with dreams and arise at the level of modestly consciousness. The
variation is infinite; from day dreaming until the particular imaginations
of people in ecstasy.
 Archetypes
Archetype is a term which means instincts toward something beyond
the consciousness. Archetype innate and grow in the collective
unconscious during human’s life, so it does not depend on some
particular human beings. Archetype does not have a form to itself, but
it reacted as the "defining principles" on anything that we see or do.

How to Examine the Theory of Psychoanalysis in Literature

Since literature cannot be separated from creation issues covered by wide range of
psychiatric problems, then to analyze it, it should be through psychological support. Lacking
knowledge of psychology will make it difficult for researchers in using and applying this
approach. Here will be described some methods or steps of psychological approach;
a. Psychological approach emphasizes the overall analysis in literature, both in
extrinsic and intrinsic. However, the analysis can be done by looking at the
intrinsic side, that is, characterization. Analyzing through characterization can be
seen from the method of telling and showing. Method of telling and showing are
the two methods used by the author to demonstrate the natures of the existing
characters in their works. The author does not have to use one of these methods.
Telling method is widely used by ancient authors -not modern fiction’s author,
while contemporary authors (modern era) are more likely to combine these two
methods in their works. Both of these methods are not only useful for the author,
but also for the reader to explore the characteristics of the each figure in a
literary work.
 Method of telling
Method of telling relies on the characteristic exposure of the figures and
commentary from the author. Through this method, the participation or
the interference of the author in presenting characterization of the figures
is much needed, so that the reader will understand the disposition of
figures based on exposure from the author. Telling method includes
characterization by using names of the characters, by character’s
appearance, and by author’s utterances (Minderop, 2005: 8). Paying
attention on this method –which always used by the author, will make the
reader understand about the natures that exist in figures of a literary
work.
 Method of showing
Method of showing (indirect method) shows us when the author puts
himself outside the story by providing the opportunity for figures to show
their characterization through dialogue and action (Pickering and Hoeper,
1981: 27). Most modern authors prefer to use this method rather than
method of telling. Their decision does not mean that the method of
 showing is better than method of telling, but it is because the author
considers method of showing is more appealing to readers.
Method of showing includes dialogue and behavior of the figures,
characterization through dialogue (what is said by the figure, including
tone and emphasis of their sentences), figure identity, location and
situation of the conversation, the mental qualities of figures, and dialect
and vocabulary of figures (Minderop, 2005: 22- 23). Not different from
method of telling, paying attention on the parts of showing method -which
the authors shows in their works- is another way to make the reader
understand on characterization of figures contained in a literary work.
b. Besides analyzing the characterization and disposition, analyzing could also be
done by seeing the theme of the literary work, considering the characterization
and theme are two typical problems where psychological approach is very
appropriate to be applied.
c. In the characterization analysis, researcher of psychology literature should find
reason about the behavior of figure and explain the motivation that supports
him/her to perform an act. If there are unusual behaviors which different from
human behavior in general, the researchers must find a reason by collecting data
that is expected to support such action. In other words, researchers are required
to carefully and continually follow the behavior of the figures from one event to
another event.
d. Conflict and its relation to the disposition is also the foundation that must be
considered in the research of psychological literature. In analyzing the conflict, it
is important to know whether the conflict occurs within the figures (between the
figures and themselves), with other figures, or with their environment.
e. Analyzing a literary work using a psychological approach is not only limited in the
research of literary work itself, but also can be done by researching the authors.
In this case, it is necessary to track the biography of the authors, start from their
childhood until they grown up. This is important to be done because there is a
 possibility of an authors’ previous experience will affect their way of thinking and
a theme which they adopted in their literary work. Understanding the mental
condition of an author will help the reader in comprehending the behavior and
disposition of figures. Thus, it will be also easier to reveal other aspects that are
related to the behavior and character of the figures.
f. Finally, analyzing literature using psychological approach can be seen in the
influence of the literary works from the reader’s side. The effect that should be
given attention is the effect of influence that causes a deep impression in the
hearts of the readers and can provide a new perspective when they finished
reading the story.
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