ST. PETER OF VERONA ACADEMY INC. JAYVEE D.

PEREZ
Hermosa , Bataan Teacher
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Name of Student
G1
STUDENT’S LEARNING MODULES CRITICISM MODULE

2020-2021 ENGLISH 10
Topic
February 1-5,2021
Grade and Section
0
School Year Subject Days Covered

Session Objectives:
At the end of this topic, you should be able to:
 Explain psychological criticism;
 Discuss the gist of the drama “Oedipus Rex;”
 Write a psychological criticism of a chosen literary piece.

TOPIC 4: PSYCHOLOGICAL
What is Psychological criticism?
Psychological criticism refers to literary criticism which, in method, concept,
theory, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by
Sigmund Freud. Freud was assisted by his pupils: Alfred Adler, Otto Rank,
Carl Jung and Karen Horney. Psychoanalytic reading has been practiced since
the early development of psychoanalysis itself, and has developed into a rich
and heterogeneous interpretive tradition.

Sigmund Freud
 A neurologist practicing in Vienna, Austria.
 Troubled that he could not account for the complaints of his patients whom he diagnosed as hysterics.
 He inferred that their distress was caused by factors of which perhaps even they were unaware.
 Fantasies and desires too bizarre are unacceptable to admit which were suppressed led to neuroses and
illness.
 Sigmund Freud’s major works include:
1. STUDIES IN HYSTERIA
A. Published in 1895 in collaboration with Joseph Breuer
B. Asserts that symptoms of hysteria are the result of unresolved but forgotten traumas
from childhood
2. THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
A. Published in 1900, he addressed fundamental concepts in psychoanalysis.
B. Psychoanalysis is a treatment of psychological disorder in which a patient talks to a
analyst about dreams, childhood, and relationships with parents and authority figures
3. DELUSIONS AND DREAMS IN JENSEN’S GRADIVA
A. This is his first essay on psychoanalysis
B. He psychoanalyzed the central character, noting the Oedipal effects behind the plot.
4. INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
A. He wrote monographs on Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, and Leonardo Da Vinci
B. “The artist has also an introverted disposition and has not far to go to become a
neurotic.”
The Conscious vs unconscious
The Conscious mind
 “The tip of the iceberg.”
 Not aware of the submerged counterpart, it may mistake
the real causes of behavior
The Unconscious mind
 “The entire submerged iceberg.”
 The root causes of one’s problems may be found in here.
1
The Tripartite Psyche
1. The Id
A. Entirely unconscious.
B. The repository of libido, the source of psychic energy and our psychosexual desires, but it gives us
our vitality.
C. Operates without any thought of ethical consciousness.
D. Its aim is the gratification of all primal needs and wants.
2. The Ego
A. Half conscious and unconscious
B. Regulates the id’s energies and divert, delay and postpone them to more socially acceptable actions.
C. Mediates between our inner selves and our outer world, but not directly knowable.
D. We come closest to knowing it when it is relaxed in hypnosis, sleep, slips of the tongue and dreams.
3. The Supergo
A. Provides additional balance to the id
B. Similar to what is commonly known as “conscience,” it operates according to morality principle.
C. Parents, institutions, cultural norms and religious beliefs are the sources of superego.
D. Balance between the id and superego creates a healthy personality.
E. Overwhelming guilt = guilt complex, too strong superego = unhappiness

The Psycho-sexual development

AGE           STAGE                 CHARACTERISTICS

 0-1        Oral Stage          Pleasure is derived from eating (sucking) and vocalizing

 1-3        Anal Stage          Pleasure is derived from retention or repulsion of feces

 3-5        Phallic                 Pleasure from the genitals: Male (Oedipus) Female (Electra) complex

 6-11      Latency               Identification with same sex parental image

 12-18    Genital                Attraction to heterosexual opposites

Freud maintained that man is a pain and pleasure controlled organism. He normally avoids pain and
strives to achieve pleasure. This, he is a organism with drive (libido) and passion to do certain acts
which will multiply his pleasure and minimize his pain. As an individual grows up, he undergoes
several stages. Along with these stages, there are pleasure and pain experiences. If he was not able to
satisfy these things during his childhood, these unresolved issues will haunt him in his later stages of
his life. These things will find their way out from the deepest recesses of his unconscious inner self.

The importance of dreams

 Dreams are the language of the unconscious, unfulfilled desires are buried in there. Their content is
rarely clear. Even when we sleep, the ego censors the unacceptable wishes.
 Through the use of symbols that make repressed material more acceptable, if not readily understandable
to us. The ego veils the meaning of our dreams from direct apprehension that would produce painful
recognition.
 Condensation is the process which makes use of symbols that make repressed material more acceptable,
if not readily understandable to us, since the ego veils the meaning of our dreams from direct apprehension
that would produce painful recognition. 2
 Displacement is the moving of one’s feeling for a particular person to an object related to him/her to
 Freudian Symbolism
“If dreams are symbolic expressions of repressed desires, most of them sexual in nature; then the
images through which they operate are they themselves sexual ones, usually in shapes.”

 Yonic symbols are concave in shape, such as lakes, tunnels, cups, are assumed to be females.

 Phallic symbols are convex in shape, such as trees, towers, spires, are assumed to be males.

Creativity
“There is a connection between the creative expression and dream stuff.”

 The artist consciously expresses fantasy, illusion, and wishes through symbols, just as dreams from
the unconscious do.

 To write a story or a poem, then, is to reveal the unconscious; to give neurosis socially acceptable
expression.

“The artist has also an introverted disposition and has not far to go to become a
neurotic. He is one who is urged by instinctual needs which are too clamorous. He
longs to attain honor, power, fame, and the love of women; but he lacks the means of
achieving these gratifications. So, like any other with an unsatisfied longing, he turns
away from reality and transfers his interest, and all his libido too, to the creation of
his wishes in the life of fantasy, from which the way might readily lead to neurosis.” ~
Prewriting
Sigmund Freud, “Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis”
1. Pay close attention to meaningful symbols.
2. Examine dream sequences.
3. Look closely at the character/s and write a character sketch about him/her using the following guides:
A. What do you see as the character’s main traits?
B. By what acts, dialogue, and attitudes are those traits revealed?
C. What does the narrator reveal about the character?
D. Does the character change? If so, how and why?
E. Where do you find evidence of the id, ego and superego at work?
F. Does the character come to understand something not understood at the outset?
G. How does the character view him-or herself?
Drafting and revising
1. The Introduction
A. Announce at the outset what your primary focus will be (single character, the relationships
among characters, meaningful symbolism, narrative patterns, author’s life, among others).
B. Comment on similarities and differences between the work you are studying and other works of
the same author.
C. Discover parallels between the text you are reading and others that you have read written by some
other authors.
2. The Body
A. Prove your case by using tenets of psychological or critical theory to explain your point, for 3
example:
i. A certain character cannot keep his job because he is resistant to authority because he
has unresolved issues with his father.
 The conclusion
B. Prepare a summary conclusion by observing the following tips:
i. Reiterate some major psychological terminology that you have used.
ii. In the end, use a general or global view looking at the analysis as a whole.
iii. If you focused on only one topic, such as character or imagery, then a simple reiteration of
the themes that grew out of what you found should suffice.

EXAMPLE:
The Story of Oedipus Rex
Sophocles

The People of Thebes gathered at the palace. The steps were crowded by the
petitioners. They were delegates. When Oedipus appeared and asked the priest,
the eldest of all there, to speak what they wanted from the king. The priest
described that the Thebans were suffering from the plague. They were dying.
Their houses were being destroyed.

Among the mortals, king Oedipus was the wisest man. He had answered the riddle of the Sphinx and
saved Thebes before it could be destroyed. They believed that he could save them again from the plague
by finding some ways. Oedipus answered them that he had sent Creon to Delphi to visit Apollo for
instruction of getting rid of the plague. Creon entered and reported that the god commanded them to expel
an old defilement from the land of Thebes. The murderer of king Laius was to be exiled or executed. The
murder had taken place before Oedipus answered the Sphinx and became the king. They were obstacle in
further investigation of the murder by the trouble created by the riddle of the Sphinx. The priest and other
suppliants were convinced by Oedipus that he would take right action to search the murderer and do
whatever would be right for the welfare of the citizens.

Oedipus declared that the old defilement must be driven out of the house where he was being sheltered. He must be
discovered by the citizen whoever was giving him shelter. He also cursed him by praying the god that the man's life
be consumed in evil and wretchedness. He determined that the case of the murder of King Laius would be further
investigated by him in his own interest. Choragos suggested him to summon the skilled Teiresias, the prophet, to
discover the murderer. The blind seer Teiresias entered being led by a page. Oedipus urged him to help in the time
of distress. Teiresias refused to tell the truth because he believed that the truth would be more dreadful than the
present condition of the suffering. Oedipus was enraged by the words, refusal and the behavior of the prophet. He
accused the prophet of killing the king with his own hands.

Then, Teiresias spoke in anger that Oedipus himself was the pollution of the country. Oedipus charged him with the
count of murder of king Laius with the help of Creon. They were making a plot against the kingship and against the
kingdom. Oedipus reasoned that Teiresias was not skillful prophet; he had no skill of prophecy; otherwise he would
have himself helped the Thebans by answering the riddle of the Sphinx. Teiresias responded him that Oedipus, with
both his eyes, was blind. He could not see the wretchedness of his life. He didn't know in whose house he lived,
with whom lived and who were his father and mother. He said that he would learn the echo of Cithaeron
(Kithairon) and of bridal-descent of his. Oedipus commanded him to leave the place. He did not like to hear any
more of the babbling.

Before departure, Teiresias said that Oedipus would become a blind man, though he had now his eyes. He would
become a penniless man who was now rich. He would go tapping the strange earth with his staff. To the children
with whom he lived now he would be brother and father- the very same; to her who bore him, son and husband- the 4
very same. He asked Oedipus to think over his statements, and if he would find any error, he could say that the
prophet had no skill in prophecy.
There was a hot argument between Oedipus and Creon later in the palace. Oedipus charged him for the conspiracy,
but Creon reasoned out that he had never intended to be the King. Jocasta (lokasta) interrupted their dispute and
convinced that Creon was telling the truth. The king could believe on him without doubt. When Creon left the
place. Oedipus and Jocasta both debated on the question of soothsayers. She said that an oracle was reported to
Laius once that his doom would be death at the hands of his own son, born of his flesh and of hers.

The king Laius was killed at a place where three highways met. The baby with whom there was fear of death was
already left on the hills of Cithaeron (Kithairon) where it was supposed to be dead. Oedipus recollected the dim
memory of an event in which he was himself involved. He said that his father was Polybus of Corinth and mother
was Merope. A drunken man declared that Oedipus was not a child of the king and queen. Though his parents
(foster-parents) convinced him that they were really his father and mother, he had still some doubt. He went to the
shrine of Apollo, where he heard a dreadful oracle that he would lie with his own mother, and beget children and
that he would be the murderer of his father. With fear he left Corinth forever.

One day, while he was wandering, he came to a place where three highways met. There he encountered with an old
man on a chariot. There was a herald, too. As the herald drove Oedipus off the road, he was quite angry. There was
a fight. Oedipus killed them. Then, he came to Thebes, where he answered the Sphinx and freed the city from its
danger. He became king. The queen told her that a shepherd had escaped from a fight. He came back to the country.
When he saw Oedipus enthroned in the place of the old king, he requested to send him away to the border where
only shepherd used to go. His wish was granted. Oedipus intended to meet the shepherd to know whether there was
one murderer or many. The shepherd had said that there were many. Oedipus wanted to get to the truth. Oedipus
was quite disturbed.

Jocasta prayed to the god to have mercy on the King, to give him peace of mind. Meanwhile, a messenger from
Corinth came with a news that King Polybus was dead. He was dead of sickness. Oedipus was assured that the
oracle proved wrong in this case. Oedipus was still worried of his mother, Merope who was still alive. With a good
meaning, the messenger declared the truth that King Polybus and Queen Merope were not his parents. The
messenger had himself given the baby Oedipus to them from his own hand. He had taken the baby from the
shepherd of King Laius. The baby's feet were pinned with a skewer. Oedipus said that the mark of the wound was
still there on his feet. As the parental identity was not still cleared, he wished to meet the shepherd. The shepherd
was brought to the palace. He was questioned, and being obliged by the King, he declared that it was the King
Laius, who had given him the baby to leave on the hills of Cithaeron (Kithairon). The queen had herself given it to
him because of the cursed oracle. When the truth is discovered, Jocasta makes her suicide. Oedipus blinds himself
and asks for exile. He requests Creon to take care of his daughters. He was not worried of the sons because they
could manage to live somehow because they were men. Thus, the King, who solved the famous riddle and towered
up only to fall into ruin.

5
 ST. PETER OF VERONA ACADEMY INC. JAYVEE D. PEREZ
Hermosa , Bataan Teacher
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Name of Student G1
ACTIVITY
LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET (LAS) CRITICISM

2020-2021 ENGLISH - 10
Topic
February 5, 2020
Grade and Section
0
School Year Subject Date of Submission Score

PART I: PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM

1. Psychoanalysis was developed to treat which mental disorder?

a) Hypochondriasis c) Neurosis
b) Hysteria d) Depression

2. Which of the following statements is true of Freud’s seduction theory?

a) It proposed that women developed hysteria as a result of seducing older men
b) It proposed that hysterics only imagined or fantasized about early sexual experiences
c) It proposed that hysterics suffer from memories
d) Freud abandoned it because it placed too much emphasis on childhood sexuality

3. According to Freud, the odd, magical quality of dreams reflects the influence of …
a) primary process thinking
b) secondary process thinking
c) the ‘dreamwork’
d) defence mechanisms

4. Which of the following statements is true of the Ego, according to Freud?

a) It exists prior to the Id
b) It follows the ‘pleasure principle’
c) It lends its libidinal energy to the Superego
d) None of the above

5. Which of the following statements is false according to Freud’s genetic model?

a) The oral stage roughly corresponds to infancy
b) The anal stage is dominated by themes of control and shame
c) The phallic stage ends with girls internalizing a harsher super-ego than boys
d) The latency stage lasts from the end of the Oedipus complex until puberty

6. One of these four lists contains concepts from Freud’s topographic, structural and genetic models, in that order. Which is it?
a) Unconscious, ego, and repression
b) Unconscious, id, and reaction formation
c) Preconscious, superego, and regression
d) Preconscious, superfly, and fixation
e)
7. As a general rule, contemporary psychoanalytic theory …
a) pays more attention to interpersonal relationships
b) does not rely on the concepts of psychic energy and instincts
c) is relatively open to the findings of empirical psychology
d) all of the above

8. Critics of psychoanalytic inference argue that it is …

a) too dependent on subjective interpretation
b) too rigorous
c) too focused on psychological validity
d) too cautious

9. Which of the following is not a weakness of psychoanalytic evidence?

a) Its subjectivity
b) Its limited quantity
c) Its vulnerability to suggestion 6
d) Its lack of public availability

10. Psychoanalytic theory is NOT often criticized for which of the following?
a) Being unfalsifiable
PART II: OEDIPHUS REX

1. Discuss the conflict between fate and destiny on one hand and free will on the other.
Which dominates? How does each character grapple with their limited free will?

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2. How does Oedipus see himself? How is this similar or different from how he is perceived
by others?

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3. What function does off-stage action have in the Oedipus trilogy? Why, for example, does
Sophocles sometimes have messengers describe actions that have occurred rather than
portraying events directly?

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4. What are some examples of dramatic irony (when we know stuff the character doesn’t yet
realize) in Oedipus the King?

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