Firstly, in order to understand the pros and cons of using psychoanalytical literary theory, we must understand the method of reading that the analyst must approach. The critic will be reading the actual text, the manifest content, this is what the author believes his work to mean. After reading the manifest content, the critic will want to find the latent content. The latent content is the hidden true meaning of the

They not only influence behavior, but can also be applied to the function of the text, author, and the reader in psychoanalytic literary theory. The author is the id, the reader is the superego, and the text is the ego. The author is like the id, because he wants to write what he or she wants, but the author comes into conflict with the readers. The author wants to write what he or she wants, but also has to deal with the constraints of society. If he or she chooses to go against society, he or she will probably not be published. Authors need to write for their time period and use the content that is acceptable to the readers; thus, the readers become the superego. The readers are the restraint telling the id that what it wants to do is unacceptable. This is where the ego comes into play. The actual text is the ego because it is the compromise between the author and the readers. The author must write to an audience, this audience is the author’s judge, so the text is a compromise between what the author and readers want.

text (Storr). The critic can only find the true meaning of the text through studying the author in great depths. The critic will be most interested in childhood experiences. For example, if the author Joe had a dominating male figure in his childhood, and repressed his hatred for this figure as a child, his superego and his id were in conflict. His id wanted to kill his father, while his superego told him that killing was wrong. In order to form a compromise, his ego told him that writing about a fictional character that was like his father and killing him at the end of the

Some topics in this essay:
Limitations Psychoanalysis, literary critic, psychoanalytic literary, psychoanalytic literary critic, latent content, approach psychoanalytic, limiting themselves, dominating male, text ego, true meaning, readers author write, id ego superego, joe dominating, author limiting themselves, example author, approach psychoanalytic literary,