{"id":122,"date":"2024-03-26T09:04:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T09:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/culturaltheory\/?post_type=content&p=122"},"modified":"2024-04-03T08:20:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T08:20:02","slug":"chapter-5-psychoanalysis","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/culturaltheory\/chapter-resources\/chapter-5-psychoanalysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5 – Psychoanalysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Chapter 5 – Psychoanalysis<\/h1>\n\n\n

In this chapter I shall explore psychoanalysis as a method of reading texts and practices. This means that although I shall to a certain extent explain how psychoanalysis understands human behaviour, this will be done only as it can be extended to cultural analysis in cultural studies. Therefore, I shall be very selective in terms of which aspects of psychoanalysis I choose for discussion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Before you read <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Warm-up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Psychoanalytical (especially Freudian) thinking is very much evident in contemporary popular culture texts today. Watch the following music video of DJ Snake, Lil Jon \u2018Turn Down for What\u2019 (2014) [link<\/a>]. What Freudian themes, do you think, are exploited here?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Preliminary questions<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 5 discusses key concepts of Psychoanalytical Theory, incorporating discussions on Sigmund Freud and \u2018the unconscious\u2019, models of the psyche (conscious, unconscious, id, ego and superego) and Freud’s interpretation of dreams. This is followed by a section on how Psychoanalysis was developed by Jacques Lacan using a structuralist approach, to explain what he saw as the three stages of human psychological development \u2013 the ‘mirror phase’, the ‘fort da’ game and the \u2018Oedipus complex’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In looking at its application to popular culture texts and practices (cine-psychoanalysis), Laura Mulvey\u2019s work on cinema is also explored in this chapter (note that a critique of her work can be found later in Chapter 7 of Cultural Theory and Popular Culture<\/em>). A discussion of Slavoj \u017di\u017eek and Lacanian fantasy concludes the chapter, focusing specifically on how reality and fantasy are linked in a never-ending search for the satisfaction of our desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following questions fall into four categories focusing, in turn, on Freud, Lacan, Mulvey and cine-psychoanalysis and \u017di\u017eek. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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After you read: Important ideas<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Psychoanalysis \u2013 as delineated in Chapter 5 \u2013 overviews a number of important ideas and their related contexts. Using Quizzes 5.1 and 5.2 revisit those ideas by deciding to what extent the statements below reflect on the core of psychoanalytical thinking as approached by cultural studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quiz 5.1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Choose between true<\/em> or false<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n