Freud's Contribution to Gothic

Freud was a very influential and intelligent psychologist that gave very good insight on how to understand the gothic. One way is by describing it as uncanny which almost gives gothic literature another element to work with. By saying the literature is uncanny he's saying that it is very mysterious yet so familiar at the same time. When this kind of familiarity plays into the creepiness and darkness of a traditional gothic story it gives it more depth and another way for the reader to enjoy it and grasp onto the story itself. Along with this idea of the uncanny Freud contributed with the idea of the id, ego and super ego. The idea of these three levels of the mind contributes to the nature of gothic literature because the id is really being worked. The people who read gothic literature are enticed by the stories and the darkness that comes along with it. The id is the pleasure seeking state and people want to reach out for things that please them which is what gothic literature does for a lot of people. The super ego, which are the rational/moralizing thoughts, play a part in gothic literaure because many people are attracted to darkness/creepiness/mysteriousness, even though their super ego might be telling them otherwise. This is where the ego comes in to mediate between the pleasure seeking ideas of the id and the rational thinking of the super ego. A third idea that Freud contributed to the gothic was the idea of hysteria. Hysteria was defined by Freud as "an inner conflict between a wish and it's repression." This essentially means that one is too emotional. It's important to note that Freud thought this hysteric state could only apply to women. Being emotional and having strong repressed feelings, such as Sisi experienced, is a big characteristic of a traditional gothic heroine.