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Marvin Bennett Krims, an experienced psychoanalyst, has read Shakespeare closely and lovingly, and reflects in depth on his works from a psychoanalytic perspective in this interesting volume. Krims does an excellent job of teaching the reader about a psychoanalytic view of the mind, using ten plays and one sonnet to illustrate several core psychoanalytic concepts. At the same time, he enriches our understanding of Shakespeare's works. Scholars have long noted that Shakespeare has a genius for telling us what to think about, but not what to think; he forces us to think about profound questions that have no simple answers. I do not find Krims reductionistic in offering a psychoanalytic perspective. He raises further important questions about Shakespeare's works, but he avoids the trap of implying he has all the answers. He makes impressive use of the scholarly literature on Shakespeare without getting bogged down in it. He is respectful of past critical contributions but is confident in asserting his own ideas.
Krims cogently argues that Shakespeare and other great writers have an “intuitive ability to represent unconscious processes along with conscious motivations” (p. xvii). He further observes that:
Authors' ability to create the illusion of real people must also include unintentional but intuitive representation of unconscious motivations as a necessary requirement for verisimilitude of character portrayal.… I believe it is very much our business to probe below the surface of texts … even if we might at times prefer otherwise, [p. xix]
Krims's fascinating comments lead me to reflect that Shakespeare's extraordinary appeal may lie partly in his astonishing capacity to force us to confront slightly more than we are comfortable in confronting. That is, Shakespeare simultaneously undermines and supports our defenses against unbearable feelings. And then he seems to speak directly to our unconscious minds and reveal those truths that we cannot face consciously—like the m