Freud, Jung and Joyce: conscious connections

Contemporary Review, July, 1994 by Liam F. Heaney

Whether or not this indicates that Joyce was directly influenced by Freud and Jung is not the salient point here. Joyce, through his exploration of dreams and the subconscious shows Freudian and Jungian influences and arguably this adds to the universal significance and meaning of his work. Indeed, all of us have a vested interest in understanding how our minds respond and decode the complex world of reality that we encounter on a daily basis. These were the central concerns of Freud and Jung.

It is evident from this discussion that psychological concepts and theories, particularly those related to psychoanalysis, personal worlds and the 'workings' of the inner consciousness, have been used by writers to develop storylines and to delineate more fully characters within their works. Joyce clearly owes some debt to the work of Freud and Jung and his writings indicate that the ideas postulated by these psychologists did find considerable scope in his writings. Jung himself, having read Ulysses, referred to Joyce as a prophet and went on to say: 'Like every true prophet, the artist is the unwitting mouth-piece of the psychic secrets of his time, and is often as unconscious as a sleepwalker. He supposes that it is he who speaks, but the spirit of the age is his prompter, and whatever this spirit says is proved true by its effects.(9)'

In conclusion, it might be suggested that the writer as observer, must encounter the reality of experience and forge in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race.(10) This is what Joyce set out to do. The psychologist, who is observer, analyst and indeed scientist, also seeks to increase our understanding of the world and our responses to it. The fusion of scientific and literary thinking in this respect, whether consciously or unconsciously achieved, is a dynamic, enriching and unquestionably a necessary process, if our understanding of the mind and its associations and connections with reality are to be realised.

NOTES/REFERENCES

1. Jung, C. G. (1973). Letters. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

2. McHugh, R. and Harmon, M. (1982). Short History of Anglo-Irish Literature. Wolfhound Press, p.240.

3. Stevens, Richard. (1983). Freud and Psychoanalysis: an Exposition and Appraisal. Open University Press.

4. Jung, C. G. (1968). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (2nd edn.), in Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part I, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.

5. Stevens, Richard. (1988). 'Making Sense of Objective Experience', D307: Social Psychology. Milton Keynes. The Open University, pp.77-135.

6. Feldman, Robert S. (1993). Understanding Psychology. New York, McGraw-Hill, p.487.

7. Jung, C. G. (1977). Memories, Dreams, Reflections, (recorded and edited by A. Jaffe, translated by R. and C. Winston), London, Collins.

8. Trilling, Lionel. (1951). The Liberal Imagination. London, p.40.

9. Jung, C. G. (1966). Ulysses: a Monologue. Collected Works, Bollingen XX, New York, 15, 122-23.

10. Joyce, J. (1916). A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Penguin Books, p.253.