 In this video we're going to embrace our inner amateur psychologist that we all have going on most of the time and trying to peer into the souls and the minds of the people who create these different media artifacts that we're going to be examining. So we're going to do that in this video by learning about the critical lens of psychoanalytic analysis. So to preface this, we're going to be looking at some areas that aren't really accepted in modern psychology. So just be aware of that. But what we're going to be looking at in psychoanalytic analysis is trying to examine artifacts using a framework of psychoanalysis primarily rooted in the theories of psychology and psychological development developed by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Now again, these are largely not used in current psychology and psychiatry. The specific theories developed by Sigmund Freud have been kind of discarded by many, many professionals. So just be aware of that. But we're going to use this mostly as an intellectual framework for examining some of these things and trying to get into the minds of some of the people are creating things. Let's take a look at some of the Freudian basics, which again, to just to protect myself from psychologists everywhere and psychiatrists everywhere. These are not widely accepted anymore, but what psychoanalytic analysis is based in is Freudian psychology. So let's take a look at the basics here. Freud said that behavior was driven by the unconscious, that we have these drives that are even below our conscious levels of thought and feeling. But we have these drives that are just inherent in human beings. Most of them are sexual. And so according to Freud, Freud was kind of, you know, he thought everybody was obsessed with sex. And I think really what we found out is probably Freud was obsessed with sex. And so a lot of these drives are that we are driven by our sexual desires and loss without even being consciously aware of it. That these behaviors that are largely developed by childhood events, they stem from relationships with our parents. So for young boys, it's jealousy of their fathers and a desire for their mothers. And for young girls, it's jealousy of their mother and not being able to have their father because he's already taken, of course, by their mother. So it's driven by these kind of relationships, though, these complicated relationships that we have with our parents and these physiological fixations that we have, which surprise with Freud are largely to do with our sexual reproductive organs. So we're, and not only, you know, just our swimsuit areas, right? What we would politely in a G-rated world call our swimsuit areas, our physiological fixations with those types of things. So then as a result, we create these defenses to keep these conflicts buried. That our mind then creates these defenses such as selective memories, like perception, denial, projection, various fears like intimacy and death and things like that. That these are all then defenses created to keep those conflicts buried. Those conflicts that we have that result from those drives that we have and those childhood events that have scarred us and created all these conflicts, we create these defenses to keep those things buried. And then Freud said that there are basically three areas that vie for dominance as a result. The id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the location of our drives, those behaviors that we develop, right? And the ego is the location of the defenses that we develop, selective memories, selective perception, fears, things like that. That's all in the ego. And then the superego is the location of the judgment of self and others. So that's kind of the morality that we have in there, the balancing between those things, the way we use judgment to manage those things, the id and the ego rests in the superego. So we can think of it like having an angel and a devil on each other, right? We have the angel of the, on one side, the superego is balancing those things or, you know, to take it further with the Simpsons characterizations here, Bart would be the id, he's all drive, right? He's all, he's pursuing all of those drives. Homer is the ego, so he's all those defenses. And so all those things that we've created to push those drives down are represented in Homer. And then Lisa is the superego because she's the moral center. She's, she's the solid judgment that keeps those things in check, essentially. And then of course all of this influences our adult behavior. So all of that stems from childhood, all that develops in childhood and starts in childhood. And then influences our adult behaviors as we get older and presents itself differently as we get older. So that's the basics of Freudian psychology and the Freudian method of psychology and theories of psychology. And how that affects psychoanalytic analysis is this. These are the major premises of psychoanalytic analysis, analysis then. First of all, these unconscious childhood conflicts influence our adult behavior, as Freud said. They manifest themselves in different ways, but they come out in us as adults. And that's when we start creating things and have the power to create things. So this shows through then in what we create. So the things that we create are really, as we're examining it in psychoanalytic analysis, the things that we create are really manifestations of our drives and our defenses and our superego. The way that we manage those things and all of that can be seen through the things that are created. So when we're looking at an artifact, we ought to be trying to look at these psychological attributes of the creator, of the audience, the perceived audience that that artifact was created for, and the examiner, the person who's conducting this analysis, because all of these things offer insight into an artifact. So we have to examine the psychological attributes of all of those things, of the creator, of the audience, and of really ourselves as an analyzer and an examiner when we're doing psychoanalytic analysis. Sounds simple enough, right? This sounded a lot more fun when we were using cartoons to describe things, I'm sure. But here are some of the common questions that come up in psychoanalytic analysis. First of all, how do the operations of repression structure or inform the work? So remember, we have these things of repression, right? So how do the operations of that repression structure or inform the work? So what edipal or other family dynamics are present? So the edipus complex is the idea that young boys are obsessed with their mothers and really want to, I don't know, presumably an adult audience here. So the young boys want to have sex with their mothers. That's the edipus complex that they become obsessed with their mothers. They want to really marry their moms. They want to create relationships with their moms in that way. That's the edipus complex. So is there an edipal complex then that is represented in the adult creation of this artifact or other family dynamics that you would find in those kind of Freudian things? So is there a fear of fascination with death, with sexuality, including love and romance as well as sexual behavior? So do those represent the primary psychological identity of the creator or of the audience or of the examiner or the operations of the id and the ego and the superego? Those types of things. What dynamics are present? How can characters' behavior narrative events and or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind? So depending on what kind of artifact you're looking at, a character obviously if it's a novel or if it's a TV show or movie or something like that, we could look at this from that perspective of the character and their behavior or the narrative events, the way that things unfold in there or the image. If it's a work of art, if it's a painting or sculpture or something like that, then we can look at any images that are involved there and what they represent and do they represent any kind of psychoanalytic concepts? What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? So just the general psychological state of the author. What might a given interpretation of an artifact suggest about the psychological motives of the examiner? So again, you as the person who is examining this artifact, what does that tell us about your psychological motives and is that influencing your interpretation in some way? And are there prominent words or images present that could have different or hidden meanings? Is there some subtext? Is there a double entendre here? And could there be some conscious reason for the author using these problem words or images or avoiding other problem words or images and substituting others in for those? So I have selected an artifact to examine using psychoanalytic analysis. And at this point, the song is from a couple of years ago, but I think it's still an appropriate artifact and a good one to examine. So we're going to take a look at it. I'm not really a huge fan of this artist or the song or whatever, but it's a good representative artifact. So we're going to take a look at Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles. If you're not familiar with the song, you can look up the video on YouTube and check it out so you can get an idea of the imagery and the things, although you can see the cover here from the single. So you can watch that video on your own if you wish. Pause this one and go watch it, but that's what we're going to examine. I did go look at the video. I'm not, again, not super familiar with Harry Styles or his music or whatever. I know a little bit of his backstory, but but I thought this was a good song and representative just based on what we found, what we know about it from the popular culture, popular rumor at that time. So anyway, let's take a look at it. So the first common question we ask in psychoanalytic analysis that we're going to check out here is how do the operations of repression structure? Or inform the work? So in this particular instance, sexuality is prominent in all areas of the song and the video. And so it's in the present in the lyrics in the instrumentation in the imagery in the video and the way that it was promoted. I mean, it's just it's just all over the place here. Sexuality is just mothering this this song, this video and this this this piece of work. So that part of the repression is is is there and informs the work, of course, is sexuality in general. What edipal or other family dynamics are present? There's an aspect here of pleasing a maternal figure, I guess, perhaps even guilt for paternal or patriarchal dominance, baby. And, you know, could be reading into that. But basically, we know this. I mean, the song Watermelon Sugar is famously about oral sex, basically. So that it's representative of that. So there's some act, you know, some aspect of trying to please a maternal figure, please a woman who could in Freud's mind would have been a substitute for his mother. And just, you know, all women would be substitutes for your mother. How can a character's behavior narrative events or images be explained in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind? There's certainly a level of fantasy at work here. There's no question if you watch the video and see the imagery there. There's no question that there's a level of fantasy at work there. Super ego may be in place well with euphemism and substitution of the words Watermelon Watermelon Sugar for other things. That was referring to in this song, supposedly. I think it's a fairly well-known rumor, but it's a fairly well-known rumor or so. But there's a level of fantasy at work there and super ego in play with that substitution of words for others, filling in for aspects of oral sex and things. What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? I think certainly that there's a drive, there's a certainly strong drive, sexual drive there, a desire to please, maybe even with that emphasis on oral sex. And to be seen as helpful or selfless, to be seen as somebody who is driven to please, but certainly also a sexual desire there as well as sexual drive. What might a given interpretation of an artifact suggest about the psychological motives of the examiner? Certainly I think just from watching this video you can probably tell that I'm more repressed or more buttoned up in my view of sexuality in a public forum than Harry Styles is probably. So I mean just the stiffness with which I am talking about this subject is probably evident that I'm more conservative, more repressed, more buttoned up I guess. So you could interpret that I think in terms of my motives, my psychological motives in examining this. Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden meanings? Yeah, the title obviously is the first giveaway. There's lots of skin in the video. The prominent placement of watermelon on the table in the video and in the promotional materials is all over the place and representative again of an aspect of oral sex. Yes, there are lots of substitutions here, things that have thinly veiled the hidden meanings I think. Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these problem words? Yeah, maybe trying to seek acceptance but as you know taking on an adult topic so to speak, but maybe still trying to hold on to that younger fan base from when he was in one direction. So using euphemism to kind of straddle those two worlds to say hey I'm an adult, I'm a sexual being and so forth but I'm also aware that my fans may be a little younger and a little too young for me to be too explicit with this at this time. So maybe using those in an effort to straddle both of those worlds and have the best of both worlds appeal to a whole audience as possible. Okay, well as uncomfortable as that was for me and maybe for you I hope it did give you an idea of what it's like to use psychoanalytic analysis on an artifact and provided some insight there. So and that you in general now have more of an understanding of what psychoanalytic analysis is and how it can be used. If you have questions about psychoanalytic analysis or any of the other critical lenses that we were using to examine critical media studies, please feel free to email me. Love to hear from you there. In the meantime, I hope you have, again, like I say, a better understanding of this unique critical lens and how it might be helpful to somebody examining these different media artifacts.