a psychological essay an stevenson
A Psychological Analysis of Stevenson's Text
The Theory of Personality: Freud vs. Stevenson; Victorian vs. Contemporary Views
Not until Freud revealed the importance of the irrational in man have we been willing to admit the possibility that each of us has within us a second or a shadow self dwelling beside the eminently civilized, eminently rational self.
Rosenfeild, The Shadow Within
Though Sigmund Freud's contribution to the development of personality has often been criticized, it must be acknowledged as the root of modern theories of personality. Therefore, a discussion of Freud's theories of the structural model of personality and repression in conjunction with their relevant interpretation in Stevenson's characters opens up fresh areas of thought on the contemporary psychology of personality. Believing personality to be the product of the subconscious mind, Freud and Stevenson alike were both impressed by the profound actions stemming from the personality, actions apparently of a subliminal state of man, a man ruled by hidden impulses. Stevenson described such a man in Dr. Henry Jekyll a decade before Freud did in psychological discourse. Clearly Stevenson lamented the fact that he would not receive full recognition for his ideas on the division of man when he predicted "others will follow, others will outstrip me in the same lines" (Stevenson, 55). Nevertheless, giving credit where due, perhaps it is the allegorical theories presented in Stevenson's most legendary novel that can be recognized as the root of modern theories of personality.
Along with these observations on the link between Stevenson and Freud, a brief examination into the interconnection between Victorian and modern psychology proves insightful. It seems that Victorian psychology possessed theories on good and evil, the moral convictions of man's mind which could be altered by external stimuli, "I shall point out that we can already by...
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