Psychoanalytic criticism is not an easy style of criticism. This is a style that merges the Freudian studies of the mind, more specifically the conscious and the unconscious with the media analysis. If I had to explain this style to someone I would recommend to read the ideas of Freud and the psychoanalysis. According to Freud every single action is related to our childhood, and he explains how we do things as adults, based on our childhood experiences. Freud talks about the id, the ego and the superego, which are complicated concepts. This psychoanalytic criticism borrows this concepts to analyze media. With this style we are able to find in media different signs such as aggression and violence as well as sexual behaviors. This style is really interesting because it teaches the viewer to look for very specific aspects that are not exposed in other styles like semiotics and Marxism. Therefore this style attempts to explain things from the perspective of the mind, the unconscious. Thus, with this analysis, we can somehow see the inner thoughts of the author of any given text. For example; the characters created by an author could easily, even though they are most likely made up, be a reflection of his or her childhood memories and experiences. This is because, according to Freud, some of our actions and reactions are unconscious and an author could entirely created a story, a movie, a book, with patterns and fixations from his childhood. The psychoanalytic criticism takes you there, to the deep and the dark places of your mind.
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