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Critical Theory

Theories of Resistance in Sigmund Freud and Paul de Man

Freud and de Man both outline theories of resistance in interpretation- the former in his work The Interpretations of Dreams and the latter in his essay “The Resistance to Theory”. By extension Freud’s definition of the “dream” can be thought of as the literary text, and the retelling of this dream or literary text, as the “reading” of the text. It is through the relationship of the patient’s retelling/reading and the psychoanalyst that the interpretation of this text/dream comes into being. There are many parallels and incongruities within the resistance theories named by Freud and de Man such as: the basic problem of retelling and reading of the dream/text, the influence of censorship on the interpretation, the pressures of resistance to interpretation and the notion of the “obvious” meaning. De Man and Freud attempt to illuminate the problems of interpretations in different modes. De Mann moves for a...

Posted by: Tricia F. Doyle

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