ISA essays..
Q. Write an essay on Psychoanalysis and the stream of consciousness.
Psychoanalysis is a treatment method that follows the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud to treat mental disorders. He along with his colleague Josef Breuer found that the patients were improving from their disorder when the sources of the ideas and impulses that they experienced were brought to conscious state from the hypnotic state. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and methods were very powerful and it has spread across in various other fields other than psychology. Freud observed that patients shared their thoughts freely without being in a hypnotic state but they hid the painful experiences from the experimenter. Thus, came the technique of free association of ideas which helped him interpret his patients’ dreams. These dreams, slips of the tongue, forgetfulness and other mistakes they made helped him understand the pain they repressed and helped them heal mentally by bringing it in their conscious state. The stream of consciousness (in psychology), is a phenomenon which shows how our thoughts flow in our conscious mind. The American philosopher and psychologist and leader thinker of the late 19th century, William James states that our thoughts flow like a “stream or a river” and does not occur to us “in chopped up bits.” And thus, he named this phenomenon as the stream of consciousness. The roots of this phenomenon can be seen in the Buddhist religious teachings. They called it the mind stream and tried to be aware of being aware of their conscious thoughts and feelings. Stream of consciousness in literature is used as a literary device. Widely used as a narrative technique, this method enables the thoughts and feeling that pass through the mind of the narrator to be presented before the reader. This type of narrative technique lacks punctuation as thoughts are bund to leap from one topic to another. This technique of writing marks its beginnings in the late 19th century. Laurence Sterne’s Tritram Shandy (1757) is the most featured novel that shows the use of this narrative device in the 18th century literature. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) also is an example of the stream of consciousness as a device. In the 20th century, Marcel Proust, John Cowper Powys, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot are regarded as the modernist writers who used this technique in the novels, short stories, and poems. This technique is still being used by writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer and Brendan Connell. The writers at the time gradually shifted their perspective from outward beauty (romantic idea) to the chaos seen around and within individuals. The wars produced chaos and it became impossible for the people to think like before. Their chaotic thoughts and the stream of their consciousness can be seen in their works of fiction and non-fiction.
- Stream of consciousness (psychology) - Wikipedia
- Stream of consciousness - Wikipedia
- Sigmund Freud | Biography, Theories, Psychology, Books, Works, & Facts | Britannica
- Sigmund Freud | Biography, Theories, Psychology, Books, Works, & Facts | Britannica
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