Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT Much has been written about Freud's influence on popular culture. This article addresses the influence of literature on Freud's psychoanalytical theory, specifically the role that modern detective fiction played in shaping Freudian theory. Edgar Allan Poe gave Freud the literary precedent; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes gave him the analytical model. In turn, the world of crime storytelling embedded Freudian theories in subsequent forms, spinning the tales of crime into a journey into the human mind. As these tales were popularized on the silver screen in the early 20th century, psychoanalytical ideas moved from the lecture halls into the cultural mainstream.
BOTH PSYCHOANALYSIS and modern detective fiction evolved into their modern form around the turn of 20th century. In several ways, their development reflected the turbulent time period: an era that saw increasing doubt over logic and reason as ways to govern the world and that questioned humanity's ability to redeem itself through progress and knowledge.Detective fiction was an attempt to solve the unexpected through logic and reasoning, while psychoanalysis was a way to make coherence out of a fragmented presentation.The preceding period had marked a growing public concern over crime in urban areas that was fed into public consciousness by the burgeoning print industry.After the establishment of the world's first public police force, the Metropolitan Police in London in 1829, it was only a matter of time before the sensationalistic, journalistic storytelling of crime solving would blossom into a genre of its own.
However, psychoanalysis and detective genre shared more than just a historical moment. Freud himself was intensely interested in detective stories, and for him the archetype of detective reasoning was Sherlock Holmes. Freud felt that psychoanalysis had plenty to offer the field of crime detection.The fervor was returned by the literary circle, which saw in psychoanalysis a field that offered a fresh new approach to solving crime.No longer was it enough to simply describe the events that unfolded in a crime incident, nor was it satisfactory to end the story at the discovery of the murderer.The readers wanted more than just plot-the notion of motive and intent had become an important element of the storytelling. Part of this desire was due to the nature of crime detection: a...