Freud's Influence on Fiction

Sigmund Freud's influence on twentieth century fiction was enormous and it took many forms. Much of what appeared in novels, however, was not concerned with the implications of actual clinical practice or the niceties of theory construction. Instead, much of Freud's thought was reduced to forms that were palatable and could either be understood and consumed easily or would create a sensation among readers. The well-known transformations of terms such as "libido" "ego" and "Oedipus complex" are examples of the reception that many of Freud's ideas found in the press and popular literature. Serious writers also picked and chose among the enormous number of ideas that psychoanalytic thought offered--employing them in the knowledge that the reader would be able to follow their references to Freud's ideas.

Though dreams, for example, were nothing new to literature the access to the irrational that seemed to be promised by Freud, led to renewed interest in them as symbolic vessels. Whether the dreams or their interpretation had very much to do with Freud's theory is not so important since his influence was primarily felt as a key that opened numerous possibilities. The same can be said of the view of Freud as some kind of prophet of freer sexuality or as a liberator of the artist's unconscious. The finer points of psychoanalysis were undoubtedly left to the experts by most artists.

But serious writers did employ Freud's ideas in two interesting ways. In one approach psy

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ars" (182). For Diver to have moved on at this point, Fitzgerald would have to have been writing a very different kind of book from this one. Instead of leaving it at that, an explanation follows; "They knew that she did not play at all--she had had two sisters who were brilliant musicians, but she had never been able to learn the notes when they had been young together" (182). The capsule case study that is offered here is formulaic and unsophisticated. But, leaving aside its relation to Freud's methods or ideas, the ability of the doctors to sum up the woman's pathology in such a neat package makes psychoanalysis comprehensible to the ordinary reader. If the doctors are capable of making such a pointed analysis of the case, can a cure be far away? Fitzgerald is not deliberately dishonest, however, and the woman has, of course, been there for years. But this approach sets the tone of the book. Nicole's case appears to be gone into in much greater depth than that of the non-musician patient. But the simple revelation of incest and the supposedly successful transference that cures her and leaves Dick a ruined man, are not, in fact, convincing. The reader accepts these events for what they are and they need not spoil enjo

Category: Literature - F