Psychoanalytical Blog Post

Psychoanalytical criticism draws heavily on the psychological theories of Freud and Jung, which deals mostly in the conscious and unconscious. According to these psychologies, the conscious is constantly working with or against the subconscious mind. A great representation of this is the id, ego, and superego. Freud came up with these to show the different aspects of individuals’ minds. The id is mostly focused on pleasure and is more of an unconscious thought. The superego is the part of ourselves that is making decisions and doing the things people need to do. It draws from moral motivations and culture to keep the individual in check. The superego is pretty much the opposite of the id. The ego is the go-between of these two other things. It likes a bit of pleasure, but it also takes into account of the restrictions in place.

In the TV show Jane The Virgin, these three aspects of thought can be applied to the characters. The show focuses on a family of three women: Alba, the grandmother; Xiomara, the daughter; and Jane, the granddaughter. Xiomara is easily the id, where she lives her life based on how she’s feeling. She’s a free-spirit, which leads her to be pregnant with Jane at sixteen. Alba is the superego and is very motivated by religion. She is the most conservative of the group and really drills into Jane that she should save her virginity until she is married. Jane is the ego and has a little bit of both of her mother and grandmother in her. She follows the direction of her grandmother and decides to stay a virgin until marriage, but she isn’t only motivated by religion like her grandmother.