D.H. Lawrence is the Harbinger of New Psycho Dynamics in the Modern Literature

Tyagi Pallavi

Abstract

The psychodynamic model is founded on the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Freud’s writings have a greater influence on the development of psychology. Central to his approach is the assumption that biological drives and inborn instincts towards self-preservation direct behavior. Thus we are dominated by sexual and aggressive urges, catching the infant or young child in a crosscurrent. Though we are the mercy of our inherited urges and early parental training experiences, we survive by imposing rational control over these basic conflicts. Behavior that does not appear to make sense, or to be based on logic, is analyzed as a symptom of unconscious motives. According to psycho dynamic model, human nature is fully determined by heredity and early life experiences. In accordance of Freud’s belief, Lawrence as an author pours in his own unconscious into the characters and situations depicted in his works more specifically in his novels. Freudian interpretation of literature applied to Lawrence’s works becomes convincing and ingenious in explaining the “return of the repressed”. His novels besides portraying the psychology of characters are also taken as the conscious or ‘Overt’ interpretation of the ‘covert’ or the unconscious of the author himself. The critical analysis of the psycho dynamics revealing itself through abstract impulses, feelings, and instincts, mythical or materialistic symbols has been attempted in the present study.