Why Freud is Bad for Literature
In literary circles you always hear people obsessing about Freud.
Freud this, Freud that.
Oedipus this, repressed darkness that.
The problem with Freud in literature is that everything in Freud is dark and terrible.
This is understandable. Sigmund Freud was a psychologist, not a literary critic. He was trying to cure people of the diseases of the mind.
If you want to cure diseases, you focus on dark things in order to cure them.
But art, including literature, should give us joy on some level. Should lift us up.
If we only consider the diseases of the mind in literature, we don't see any of the light, only the darkness.
Consider, for one, what some have called the 'uncanny valley' in art and literature.
This is where things get weird and a little bit mysterious. A forest full of mists and shadows, perhaps.
To Freud's followers, this is always something dark and terrible, like in horror.
Which is fine if we are writing horror.
But what if we can only see Steven Spielberg's E.T. or Tolkien's Galadriel as dark and terrible?
That 'uncanney valley' can be the most beautiful, uplifting, wonderful thing that we will ever experience!
And this is what art and literature is seeking, not darkness!
Joy and light!
Why do we watch horror, after all?
To feel the joyous thrill of having survived something horrible, the vicarious thrill of feeling like we can survive anything!
That joyous thrill of triumph!
Sure! Have darkness in your literature!
But that darkness should be there to illuminate the light!
Something for us to triumph over!
Focusing on the diseases of the mind is fine for curing the diseases of the mind, fine for helping people feel better through psychology!
But it is woefully inadequate for art and literature!
We need to revise our literary psychology!
Freud did not write as a literary critic! He wrote as a psychologist!
We need to learn how to psychoanalyze the good, joyful, and wonderful alongside the terrible if we are going to use Freud in literature!
He did not intend his writings to be literary criticism!
If we are to use Freud in literary criticism, we need to learn how to adapt Freud to literary criticism by learning how to psychoanalyze joy and light, friendship and love!
Because it is these things that make art worthwhile!
Without joy, light, and love, without the happiness and light, art is worthless!
We need to learn to adapt Freud to literary criticism by putting in how to psychoanalyze joy, love, and happiness!
God loves you! Look to the light hard enough and you will find it!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson