Hamlet's Character: The Question of Literary Analysis

Freud developed the psychological attitude for interpreting literature. This is not to say that he developed the psychological attitude for writing literature. Men of letters—dramatists and poets, philosophers and historians—had used the psychological approach for writing literature for hundreds and thousands of years, probably as long as our written records. Men of letters have always been influenced by the psychological Zeitgeist, whether for or against. As Wilhelm Stern has said, “Keine Gestalt ohne Gestalten.”

This is not to say that Freud originated the psychological attitude for interpreting literature. But, Freud developed this style, he refined it, he attempted to make it scientific, and through his influence directed it. The literary world, “for better or for worse,” owes Freud something.

Throughout his writing life as evidenced in his letters, essays, and books, Freud made many references to literature. There can be no question that Freud began the application of formal psychoanalysis to the interpretation of literature. But even here the heritage of psychoanalysis is seen in centuries past, especially with regard to the unconscious. Freud (1955) in 1917 readily acknowledged his indebtedness, e.g., to Schopenhauer. And we can add von Hartmann (and Nietzsche?) and many others discussed by Whyte (1960).

According to Jones (1953, ch. XIV) and Kris (Freud 1954, pp. 30-34),