.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
.
CONTENTS PAGE
.

1. Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….….2
2. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….……..3
3. Literature Review……………………………………………………………….…….4
4. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………….…6
4.1. Research Questions………………………………………………………………6
4.2. Aims & Objectives……………………………………………………………….6
4.3. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………...6
5. Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………........7
6. Discussion / findings…………………………………………………………………12
7. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………...13
8. Suggestion…………………………………………………………………………….13
9. Limitations…………………………………………………………………………….13
10. References………………………………………………………………………….....14

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 .
“SCREEN LITERATURE: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL STUDY
OF ‘BASHAR MOMIN’ ”
Abstract
Literature uses different modern theories and Psychoanalysis is one of them. This study is related
to the elements of Psychology. Literary theory always deploys a connection between literature
and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is one of the least appreciated theory among the critical
approaches to literature. It is the most rewarding theory in interpretive analysis. It has become a
mechanism to uncover the hidden meanings of a literature (as screen Literature). It explores the
writer’s personality as factors that contribute to his experience from birth to the period of book
writing. The proposed work titled “SCREEN LITERATURE, A PSYCHOANALYTICAL
STUDY OF ‘BASHAR MOMIN’” aims to explore where psychoanalysis has been used by the
author’s in his/her work on screen Literature. This study discusses the different psychoanalytic
perspectives which grew-up of the self-analysis under taken by Sigmund Freud in 1897.
Keywords: psychoanalysis, Oedipus complex, consciousness, literature, unconsciousness,
Screen Literature, Bashar Momin

2
Introduction
The art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of literary works is
basically a literary criticism. Literary criticism refers to analysis and judgment of works of
literature. It tries to interpret specific works of literature, and also helps us to identify and
understand different ways of examining and interpreting them. Study of literary criticism
contributes to maintenance of high standards of literature. Different literary theories work
together to criticize literature. As, In literary theory, structuralist criticism relates literary texts to
a larger structure, which may be a particular genre, a range of intertextual connections, a model of
a universal narrative structure, or a system of recurrent patterns or motifs, Marxism, the political
and economic theories of Karl Marx, is often applied to other theoretical frameworks in order
to view particular aspects of society. One of the many areas Marxism is concerned with is art, and
the lens with which one can view art from a Marxist point of view is called Marxist aesthetics.
For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he might focus on how the
characters in a story are created by an economic situation. If a critic is working with post-
colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial
powers (Britain, France, and even America) construct characters from, say, Africa or the
Caribbean.
Modern psychology started from the early 20th century and then the psychological analysis of
literary texts evolved. First time, it was used by Freud as a method of therapy for neuroses. In the
history of civilizations such as warfare, religion, Literature and other arts, it expanded its
development. Psychoanalysis is used for the explanation of literature and literature is used as
psychoanalytic conceptions and for creative purposes. Psychological criticism studies the work of
literature as an expression of the state of mind and of personality of author.
In the historical perspective psychoanalysis started from the profession of medical. Now, it is also
studies as one of the different approaches to literature. According to Monte (1977),
“Psychoanalytic theories assume the existence of unconscious internal states that motivate an
individual’s overt actions”. Sigmund Freud championed the Psychoanalysis movement. His
student Carl Gustav Jung re-directs his view the understanding of psychoanalysis. He discusses
the human behavior in the perspective of myths. A later development of psychoanalysis embraced
Alfred Adler who sees man as a social being. In the sense of Adler we are motivated by social
needs, “we are self conscious and capable of improving ourselves and the world around us”. So,
we can start to perceive that there is a mutual fascination between the field of ‘Psychoanalysis
and Literature’ is the major ‘mediator’ between the two disciplines.

3
Literature Review
Psychoanalysis is not simply a branch of medicine or psychology; it helps understand philosophy,
culture, religion and first and foremost literature. In developing his theory of psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud has often related it to art in general and to literature in particular. In ‘The
Interpretation of Dreams, Freud analyzed Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Hamlet for their
oedipal elements and for the effects the plays had on their audience. In his ‘Creative writers and
Day-dreaming,’ Freud further expanded the connection between literature and psychoanalysis. He
compared fantasy, play, dreams and the work of art in order to understand creativity. In ‘creative
writers and Daydreaming’ Freud first presented his theory on the structure of the literary work
and made a psychoanalytic inquiry into the nature of literature. For Freud, a literary work is
analogous to a daydream. Like a daydream, the literary work contains in its fantasy the
fulfillment of an unsatisfied wish and thus improves on an unsatisfactory reality. (FREUD, 19th
century)
Psychoanalytic literary criticism can focus on one or more as; The author: The theory is used to
analyze the author and his/her life and the literary work. The characters: This theory is used to
analyze one or more of the characters, the psychological theory becomes a tool that to explain the
characters’ behaviour and motivations. The audience: The theory is used to explain the appeal of
the work for those who read it. The text: The theory is used to analyze the role of language and
symbolism in the work. (Hossain, 2007)
There are different theories relating to psychoanalysis. The main theories that are related to
psychoanalysis are Freudian theory, Lacanian theory (Hossain, 2007). Psychoanalysis is a
psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian Neurologist
Sigmund Freud and others (FREUD, 19th century). Freud discussed three stages, 1. The Pre -
Oedipal Stage; Freud claimed that all human beings are born with certain instincts, i.e with a
natural tendency to satisfy their biologically determined needs for food, shelter and warmth. The
satisfaction of these needs is both practical and a source of pleasure which Freud refers to as
‘sexual’. 2. The Oedipus complex; Sigmund Freud introduced the term ‘Oedipus complex’ in his
‘Interpretation of Dreams’ (Freud, 1913). According to him, the concept is a desire for sexual
involvement with the parent of the opposite sex, which produces a sense of competition with the
parent of the same sex and a crucial stage in the normal developmental process (Freud, 1913).
The term Oedipus complex was indeed named after the name of Greek mythical figure. Oedipus
who was the son of king Liaus and queen Jocasta of Thebes, and finally killed his father and
married his mother unconsciously which according to the belief of the writer and people of that
time, was designed by fate. (Safra, 1798). But, according to Sigmund Freud, the accidents or

4
incidents in the life of Oedipus happened because of sexual complexity between Oedipus and his
mother. And on the basis of this story he invented the concept Oedipus complex which he
attributed to children of about the age of three to five. He views that all human behaviour are
motivated by sex or by the instincts, which in his opinion are the neurological representations of
physical needs (Freud, 1913) . He firstly referred to those as the life instincts which perpetuate the
life of the individual, initially by motivating him or her to seek food and water and secondly by
motivating him or her to have sex (Boeree, 2006). 3. The unconscious; The unconscious is that
part of the mind that lies outside the somewhat vague and porous boundaries of consciousness
and is constructed in part by the repression of that which is too painful to remain in consciousness
(Freud, 1913). 4. Ego, Id and SuperEgo; Freud proposed three structures of the psyche or
personality. Id refers a selfish, primitive, childish pleasure oriented part of the personality with no
ability to delay gratification. SuperEgo refers internalized societal and parental standards of
‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviour’. Ego refers the moderator between the Id and
Super-Ego which seeks compromises to pacify both. It can be viewed as our ‘sense of time and
place’. (FREUD, 19th century). Lacanian Theory; French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has
reinterpreted Freud is structuralist terms, bringing the theory into the second half of the Twentieth
century. Lacan discusses the importance of the preOedipal stage in the child’s life when it makes
no clear distinction between itself and the external world. Lacan refers to this stage as the
Imaginary (Lacan, 1950).
The concept is a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of the opposite sex, which
produces a sense of competition with the parent of the same sex and a crucial stage in the normal
developmental process (Freud, 1913)

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Methodology
Psychoanalytic theory was propounded by Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud’s model about
Psychoanalysis is used in this study. Different elements of Psychoanalysis are used for the
analysis of screen literature. BASHAR MOMIN drama is selected, the examples are extracted
manually and the elements of Psychoanalysis are applied.

Aim and Objective

The objective of this study is to know which elements of Psychoanalysis appear in BASHAR
MOMIN.
Research questions
1. Which elements of Psychoanalysis appear in BASHAR MOMIN?

Theoretical Framework
Fraud gave the concepts of Psychoanalysis and he discussed the different elements. The idea is
taken from Fraud theory of Psychoanalysis. The data is extracted from a screen Literature

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(BASHAR MOMIN). The data is extracted from the dialogue of main character ‘BASHAR’ and
from the other supporting characters.

Data Analysis
Example # 1
1. The origin of unconscious
The unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds,
fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel we
will be overwhelmed by them. This is a psychological history that begins in childhood
experiences in the family.
For example, the focus of my data, which I selected, is on the past. His family experiences
originate the unconscious.
Source text
‫تم اپنی مثال آپ بنو گے سارے اختیار تمھارے‬،‫ میرے بیٹے کی ایسی شخصیت ہو گی کہ وہ اپنی مثال آپ ہو گا‬.1
‫پیرؤں کی دھول ہوں گے۔۔۔میرے بیٹے کو بیوی کی ایسی چاہ پتہ ہو گی کہ جس سے وہ ہمیشہ مسرور رہے‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, ‫یہ دنیا تمہیں اپنے پاؤں تلے رال دے گی‬، ‫گا۔کبھی بھی شرافت کا لبادہ مت اڑھنا‬
2012)
Target text
It is my prayer, God, grant my son such a personality that will be like no other in the world. You
make yourself an example, money and power will be littered at your feet. My son will know such
hunger from his wife that will always keep his heart happy. Don’t you become a good man, the
people will ruin you. (BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion

In, BASHAR MOMIN, the main character is a repressive. His family experiences and his
Father’s advice make him an untreatable and bad man. His father aske him that if you become a
good man then there will be no one of you and you will die in your goodness because this
goodness is only for you not for others. If you want to become something special then you should
kill your goodness. So, this advice builds his unconscious and then he applies all of those things
in his life and become a bad man because he does not want to become just like his father because

7
his father attempts suicide because of his mother’s unfaithfulness. He wants to become someone
special in the world.
Source text

(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012) ‫کبھی بھی اس لڑکی سے شادی نہ کرنا جس کے دل پر کسی اور کی مہر لگی ہو‬2.
Target text
Don’t ever marry with a girl who has another man’s name branded in her heart. (BASHAR
MOMIN, 2012)

Discussion

BASHAR’S mother leaves his father because she loves to someone else. She loves someone else,
after marriage with BASHAR’S father, she always thinks about him and one day she leaves his
family for him. So, his Father asks him that he does not marry with a girl who has a boyfriend in
her life. This was his unconscious that originate that no one is good girl.
Example # 2
Defenses
These are the processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious
1. Displacement
It is a “taking it out” on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused our
fear, hurt, frustration, or anger.
Example # 3
Source text
‫ تم میری ماں جیسی ہو جس نے کبھی بھی میرے باپ سے پیار نہیں کیا جیسے تم نہیں کرتی ہو میراےباپ نے‬.1
‫ ویسے‬، ‫خود کشی کر لی تھی کیونکہ میری ماں نفرت کرتی تھی میرے باپ سے جیسے تم مجھ سے کرتی ہو‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)‫ہی میں اب تم سے نفرت کرتا ہوں صرف اپنی ماں کی وجہ سے۔‬
Target text
You are just like my mother who never loved my father like how you don’t; my father committed a
suicide because my mother hated my father. Like how you hate me. But now I hate you just for my
mother. (BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion
BASHAR’S mother leaves his father because she loves to someone else. She loves someone else,
after marriage with BASHAR’S father, she always thinks about him and one day she leave his

8
family for him. Just because of his mother he hates his wife. He punishes her. He thinks that she
is the same girl as my mother was. He displaces his wife with his mother.
This was his defense that he uses a displacement.
2. Selective perception
This is a hearing and seeing only what we feel we can handle.
Example # 4
Source text
‫خان کتنے عرصے سے تم میرے ساتھ کام کر رہے ہو آج تک نہیں جان سکے کہ میں اپنے کام کا بادشاہ ہوں۔میرے لئے‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)‫مجھ سے زیادہ اہم کوئی نہیں‬
Target text
How long have you been working with me? You still haven’t figured out that I am my own king.
No one is more important to me than myself. (BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion
BASHAR selects his perceptions that he is the only one who is perfect and no one is better than
him. Here he says that with the passage of time he was a poor where no one helps him but now
the power is in his hand and he can do all the things those he wants. He is not a slave of anyone.
He is a perfect man.
These are his selective things those make by his past or his family.
3. Oedipal complex
This is a dysfunctional bond in the opposite sex that we don’t outgrow in adulthood and that does
not allow us to develop mature relationships with our peers.
Example # 5
Source text
‫ میں ذرا دیکھوں کہ طیبہ کیا کر رہی ہے؟‬.1
‫میں بھی چلتی ہوں۔‬
‫نہیں رہنے دو تم یہں پہ بیٹھو اپنے شوہر سے باتیں کرو ۔میں خود ہی دیکھ لوں گی‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Target text
I’ll go see how Tayyaba is doing.
I’ll go with you
No way you stay here and talk with your husband.
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Source text

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‫ یہ تو ایک ہی رات میں مجنوں بن چکا ہے ۔ا ّلو کی طرح بیوقوف لگ رہا تھا اس کو بیٹھ کر اپنے ہاتھ سے‬.2
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)‫جیولری پہنا رہا تھا‬
Target text
In one night he’s already become so attached! He looked so stupid! He was putting on her
jewelry with his own hands. (BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion
Here the BASHAR’S sister feels that his brother loves his wife more than her. This is an oedipal
complex in which she can’t find attraction from his brother and then there is an oedipal complex.
If there is no attraction in opposite sex then that becomes an oedipal complex that is shown in the
form of BASHAR’S sister.
4. Low self-esteem
This is a belief that we are less worthy than other people and don’t deserve attention. We want to
punish our life.
Example # 6
Source text
‫یہ کپڑے تیری اوقات ہی یہ ہے کہ تو میری بہن‬،‫جو آج سے تو پہنے گی‬، ‫یہ میری بہن کے کپڑے ہیں‬، ‫اب پہن یہ کپڑے‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)‫کے میلے کپڑے پہنے‬
Target text
Now wear these clothes. These are my sister’s clothes that you will wear now on! These clothes…
this is your level, this is your worth, that you wear the clothing my sister has used and dirted.
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)

Discussion
BASHAR shows that his wife is inferior to his sisters because of her, his sister’s worry and they
are not getting an attention from their husbands just because of her. He wants to punish her and
give calm to his sisters.
This is a low self-stream because he thinks that she is worthy than his sisters. In his childhood, he
always gives a lot of love to his sisters and now if any one teases them, then he punishes him.
5. Fear of betrayal
This is the nagging feeling that our friends and loved ones can’t be trusted.
Example # 7
Source text
BASHAR ( ‫سنو ردابہ اگر بلند تمھارے آس پاس بھی نظر آیا تو تیرے ٹکڑے ٹکڑے کر کے چیل کے آگے ڈال دوں گا‬
)MOMIN, 2012

10
Target text
Listen to this one thing very carefully, Rdaba. If I see Buland anywhere near you then I’ll cut you
pieces and throw you to the vultures.( BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion

BASHAR can’t trust his wife because he thinks that his wife does not love him. She loves
someone else. He thinks that she always tells a lie to him about everything. He thinks that, in the
case of romantic partners, cheats him by with her boy friend.
6. Fear of intimacy
The chronic and overpowering feeling that emotional closeness will seriously hurt or destroy us
and that we can remain emotionally safe only by remaining at an emotional distance from others
at all time.
Example # 8
Source text
)BASHAR MOMIN, 2012( ‫او میرے خدا! اگر اس نے مجھ سے طالق مانگ لی تو‬
Target text
Oh my Lord! If she asks for divorce (BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)
Discussion

BASHAR emotionally closes with his wife and he does not want to leave her but at one side he
hates her because of her past but he does not want to leave her. One day, when she asks him that
she wants to talk with him because she needs something then the fear arises in his mind that he
can’t leave her and if she demands for divorce then what will he does.
The fear of intimacy arises and it becomes a core issue as well as defense.
7. Dream and dream symbols
Example # 9
‫ارے تم جیسی عورتوں کو جہاں اپنا پرانا محبوب نظر آتا ہے شوہروں کو چھوڑ دیتی ہو اور ایک بات میری کان کھول کہ‬
‫سن لے میں تمہں کبھی اپنے بچے کی ماں نہیں بننے دوں گا‬
‫نام مت لینامیرے سامنے محبت کا ارے سترہ سترہ سال گزر جاتے ہیں تم جیسی عورتوں کو چار چار بچے ہو جاتے ہیں‬
‫تب بھی تم لوگ اپنے محبوب کو نہیں بھولتی ہر وقت تم لوگوں کو وہ نوالے کی طرح یاد آتے رہتے ہیں اور جب وہ‬
(BASHAR MOMIN, 2012)‫سامنے آئے اسے چھوڑ کے بھاگ اٹھتی ہو اپنے محبوب کے ساتھ ۔‬
Discussion
As the data is based on past of the main character, so, the main character always keep himself in
the dreams and then he applies his all the dreams in the real life.

11
Example # 10
1. Displacement
In this, he replaces his mother with his wife and sees her in the form of his wife. He sees that as
his mother was unfaithfulness same his wife will also.
2. Condensation

He saw that his all the difficulties in the form of his mother. He saw that his wife, his sisters
distroyness, his father’s death in the form of his mother.
He manifests his latent contents on his wife and ruined him.
Discussion / findings
Author uses Psychoanalysis in Screen Literature. Mostly, the BASHAR’s character reflects that
his every scene in the Drama is full of Psychoanalysis. His childhood past reflects that the author
herself had experienced these Psychoanalytical factors. The drama is watched scene by scene and
extracted the psychoanalytical factors those are used by the author.
Various Psychoanalytical elements are reflected as defenses, displacement, and condensation etc.
These elements are extracted and analyzed.
Literature used psychoanalysis for its explanation as BASHAR’s psyche is used to give the value
of Screen Literature.

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Conclusion
In view of the above study, we came to understand that psychoanalysis is a powerful tool in the
critical analysis of a literary text (screen Translation). Its influence on the literary production is to
add ‘legitimacy’ to the text. This study highlighted the application of Freudian concepts to the
explication of screen Literature (BASHAR MOMIN), perhaps of the writer and providing us with
a profound insight into the unconscious of the character BASHAR MOMIN.
Finally, this paper has attempted to establish the relationship between psychology and literature
and then proved that ‘Literature’ uses ‘Psychoanalysis’ for creative purposes which enrich the
quality value and legitimacy of the screen literature. Literature can help us alter our cognitions,
the internal structures of the self and this transformation can be well explained through
psychoanalytic criticism, this enables us to explore new possibilities for reading, studying and
teaching literature.
Suggestions
Fraud gave different concepts of Psychology in different perspectives. This study explores the
Psychoanalysis on screen Literature. This paper studied the different elements but some are not
described and explained. The next researchers should study the Psychoanalysis in literary texts
such as novels and short stories.
Limitations
The time was limited for this study. The focus was only on the Psychoanalysis by Fraud. The
study was held on the screen Literature. It did not take the other literary texts and theory.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Asim, Z. (Writer), & Usama, S. A. (Director). (2012). BASHAR MOMIN [Motion Picture].
PAKISTAN: Zanjabeel Asim.
BASHAR MOMIN (2012). [Motion Picture].
Boeree. (2006). oedipus complex. Retrieved from oedipus complex.
Freud. (1913).
FREUD. (19th century).
Hossain, M. M. (2007). Psychoanalytic Theory used in English Literature: A Descriptive Study.
Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: G Linguistics & Education , 17.
Lacan. (1950). Psychoanalytical criticism. In L. Tyson, Critical Theory Today (p. 26). ISBN.
Safra. (1798). Psychoanalytic Theory used in English Literature: A Descriptive Study. Global
Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: G Linguistics & Education , 17.
Usama, S. A. (Director). (2012). BASHAR MOMIN [Motion Picture].

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