Criticisms of Psychoanalysis
Freud's theories, despite their powerful use as tools for analysis (literary and otherwise), have nevertheless come under heavy attack, especially since the latter half of the 20th century. Critics point to multiple factors undermining the credibility of Freud's theories. First, his methodology was seen as limiting, as Freud relied mostly on case studies to form his hypotheses. Critics pointed out that for such far-reaching, broad, sweeping theories about the human consciousness to be true, they needed to be based in hard science and methodical, scientific inquiry. Second, skeptics took issue with the highly theoretical nature of Freud's work. The id, ego, and superego are all theoretical and have little basis in actual brain chemistry. In recent years, the lack of physiological basis for these categories of the mind despite advances in brain imaging has further degraded the credibility of these claims.
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Other critics point to a variety of other areas of weakness in Freud's ideas. Many see his obsession with the sexual to be excessive. Freud's own wife reportedly commented that at times it almost seemed as if "psychoanalysis [was] a form of pornography." Lots of modern psychologists shy away from Freud's assertions of the incestuous overtones of all sexual behaviors, and in particular, the psychosexual stage theory that (according to Freud) determined someone's behaviors and dysfunctions simply based on their early, again because recent scientific inquiry has found little physiological support for these theories. However, despite this lack of solid scientific basis, it is still totally valid to use these theories to analyze literature. After all, one of the core tenets of psychoanalysis is that people's actions don't inherently make logical sense, and using his tools to view characters' behaviors can be illuminating.
One final issue with Freud's theories as applied to literary analysis is the limited scope of his arguments. Freud's theories focus on the personal, seeking to explain the reasons behind the behaviors of individuals. It largely ignores themes of interpersonal interaction, and, perhaps most significantly, bases itself in a deterministic view of personality, which fails to encompass character growth and development. In Hamlet, the title character certainly undergoes major changes in personality over the course of the play, and yet Freudian theory focuses more on the preexisting circumstances leading to present situations rather than character development.