psychological interpretation because the methods the author chooses to tell his story in light of the story he or she intended to tell can reveal the psychic elements of the human condition the author was intending to address. For example, from the Freudian perspective, certain literary themes or motifs are generally regarded as artistic expressions or sublimations of either the author's or the protagonist's (or both) emotional and instinctive drives, as well as their unresolved subconscious problems and anxieties (Sadowski 33). The actions of literary characters are the process through which the author and/or the protagonist resolve and overcome these inner problems and conflicts.
Ad Putter's psychological interpretation of the text focuses on the psychology revealed in its verbal conversations. She argues that wherever the poet talks of the Lady's attack or Gawain's resistance, he is actually referring to the combative nature of the words with which the Lady seduces and Gawain rebuffs her (Putter 104). She notes that, when Gawain complies with the Lady's request for a kiss, he conflates the grammatical person "I" with which people represent themselves, and the "he" by which people are signified in the words of others (Putter 115). Thus, at the point where Gawain and his image in the Lady's words merge, he inscribes himself into the Lady's narrative as a "he" and abandons the "I" that realizes his separate identity as a separate individual (Putter 115).
Putter notes, however, that she does not intend to suggest that Gawain's change from "I" to "he" is a Freudian slip uttered under pressure (115). Rather, she argues that Gawain performs the change consciously and is, in fact, establishing the incompatibility between himself and the "Gawayn" the lady wants him to be (Putter 115). His protest that "I am not he of whom you have heard" (III, 1242) firmly establishes the difference between "I" and "he". Putter argues that th...