Monday, 30 September 2019

To Freud, Slade claims, ‘A dream dramatizes an idea!’

Andrew Slade | A Beginner’s Delight to Psychoanalytic theory!

Andrew Slade’s book titled, Psychoanalytic Theory and Criticism is a delightful little primer on Psychoanalytic theory and criticism, subtitled, ‘by way of an introduction to the writings of Sigmund Freud!’


Well, Slade has tried to give a concise yet elegant account of the basic moves and premises of psychoanalytic theory and criticism as they have developed over the last one hundred years, and as they have been put to use in literary and cultural studies.

This little book of just around a hundred pages doesn’t ask for a sky-high knowledge on psychoanalytic theory! Rather it requires just a beginner’s level knowledge of Freud and Freudian theory! and on how their application can help formulate and understand as well, our own experiences in the present century, and also help us make sense of literary and cultural texts from a variety of places, periods, languages and cultures.

Slade takes us - his readers - with such suave elegance into his chapters! The very first chapter opens with a crisp introductory definition to psychoanalysis. Says Slade -

Psychoanalysis is a revolutionary theory of the mind, of feeling and of behaviour. It evolved over time in Vienna, Austria, in the late nineteenth century, through the curiosity and ambition of Sigmund Freud and his interlocutors from around the world who were drawn to his work.

Right from the concepts of ‘Hysteria and the Method of the ‘Talking Cure’, which acted as a discharge of intellectual and psychical energy, Slade has his task cut out and he does it with such elan!

Especially in his take on the Freudian dream interpretation, where Slade compares the unconscious to a wishing machine, and the unconscious as the mechanism that generates dreams, he seems to do it quite elegantly at that!

To Freud, Slade claims, ‘A dream dramatizes an idea!’ Moreover, it is ‘always a fulfillment of a wish!’

Chapter Three then takes us into the realm of ‘Psychoanalysis and Literature,’ where he does a wonderful take on the ‘repetition compulsion,’ as a recurring motif in psychoanalysis, which coincidentally begins Lacan’s theory of reading, says Slade.

The next chapter deals with ‘Psychoanalytic Criticism in Practice,’ using Poe’s ‘The Cask of Amontillado’!

The fifth chapter is a wonderful take on ‘Psychoanalysis and Culture,’ and the concluding chapter gives ideas on what remains for the student to do!

Added, there’s also a brief glossary towards the end of the book on some psychoanalytic terms worth knowing!

In short, a small book of biggg value for those of us who would love to work on Psychoanalytic theory and criticism. 

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