The Neurosis of Nathaniel Hawthorne The influence of Freud’s theory of the dynamics of human personality extends far beyond the discipline of behavioral science, reaching into areas such as humanities, philosophy, and literature. Freud believed that a work of literature is the external expression of the author’s unconscious mind. Therefore, we must treat the work of literature as a dream, then reveal hidden motivations and repressed desires by applying psychoanalytic techniques. In the story “Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I will explore the use of symbols and repressed images by the author that are conveyed throughout the story.To understand better the approach of psychoanalytic criticism, we must first define a general concept of the theory behind it. Psychoanalytic theory finds its roots in psychoanalysis, the medical technique developed by Sigmund Freud in 1900. Freud published a book entitled The Interpretation of Dreams that outlined a complete theory of dreams and focused on unconscious mechanisms and their relation to consciousness. Psychoanalysis was born. Although not originally intended to be a school of literary criticism, Freud later began to develop a connection between literature and psychoanalysis. This created a new understanding of the artwork (the literary piece itself), the artist (writers including their writing process), and the audience (readers and their responses). Psychoanalysis is said to have several different meanings. For literary purposes the best definition as described by Robert Mollinger would be “a theory of the mind that can serve as an explanatory model for literature”(31). Central to Psychoanalysis is the tripartite model. The tripartite model is best described by our textbook Literary Criticism:This model developed by Freud separates the human psyche into three parts, the id, ego, and superego. The id is the source for all psychosexu...
