Katelin Rice

Literary Criticism
Final Exam

Part I.

What is psychoanalysis?
Before we begin this essay, it is important that we have a basic understanding of both topics.
Psychoanalysis is a concept introduced by Sigmund Freud, in his article Psycho-analysis he
gives us a basic idea of what it is all about. Psycho-analysis is the name (1) of a procedure for
the investigation of mental processes which are almost inaccessible in any other way, (2) of a
method (based upon that investigation) for the treatment of neurotic disorders, and (3) of a
collection of psychological information obtained along those lines, which is gradually being
accumulated into a new scientific discipline. Freud used psychoanalysis as a way of
understanding the impulses, desires, thoughts, and actions that occur within our unconscious
mind. He also explained the way that symbols are used to represent common parts of our
everyday life. This is much like the Structuralist theory from Saussure that discusses the signifier
and the signified. Psychoanalysis is also concerned with human sexuality and the stages of
sexual development. Freud was often concerned with his Oedipus complex, in which a boy
(usually between the ages of two and five) becomes sexually attracted to the mother and wants to
kill the father.

What is Feminism?
Feminism is based on the concern that our culture, including literature, is controlled by a
patriarchal ideals. It is believed that women have often been considered less than males and that
they are passive and emotional beings. Feminist critics are interested not only in the text, but the
ways women build their lives. Through the years, feminism has continued to evolve. It began
with the first wave feminists, who believed that women are worth just as much as men. Second
wave feminism began with the emergence of pop culture and the recovery of womens voices
through literature. These feminists wanted equality among male and females and often saw the
woman as the hero. Finally, third wave feminists believed that women saw the world
differently from men.
Feminism and Psychoanalysis
In the article Visual Please and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey, we see examples of how
feminism is reliant on psychoanalysis. Mulvey is concerned with the fact that in Hollywood
films, women are reduced to objects of a gaze. She goes on to explain that psychoanalysis is
used to demonstrate the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form
(Mulvey 232) and that the sexing of the female infant and her relationship to the symbolic, the
sexually mature woman as non-mother, maternity outside the signification of the phallus, the
vagina. But, at this point, psychoanalytic theory as it now stands can at least advance our
understanding of the status quo, of the patriarchal order in which we are caught (Mulvey 233).
To put it simply, it seems that Mulveys feminist critique is reliant on Freuds psychoanalytic
theory in the sense that it is to blame for the way women are perceived in film. The unconscious
impulses experienced by males have led to women becoming an object of a gaze.However, in the
article The Laugh of the Medusa by Helene Cixous, we see how Freuds psychoanalytic theory

is discredited in regards to feminist critique. Cixous uses the mythological story of Medusa,
which Freud saw as a symbol of the fearfulness of female sexuality and thus also a symbol of
castration, to reject the idea that women are just failed men. She uses the article to encourage to
write as simply that- women. She explains that women should not be viewed through the phallic
ideals that Freud has conditioned us to feel. Mulvey writes: Castration? Let others toy with it.
Whats a desire originating from a lack? A pretty meager desire. It is quite obvious that Mulvey
is critical of Freuds psychoanalytic theory. Both of these articles have presented evidence that
shows how feminism is both reliant and critical of psychoanalysis.