Monday, December 01, 2008

Hamlet, Psychoanalyzed

How about an up to date psychiatric reading of our favorite Dane?

Sure there's been Freudian analysis of Hamlet since...well, Freud. It's not new. He makes a good subject. I liked this one because it reads like Psych homework: "here's a brief summary of the patient, here's the emotions he's experiencing, here's how I characterize him and why, here's how I would treat him..." I think it's a bit more approachable than some of the traditional papers done on the subject.

1 comment:

catkins said...

There's a really interesting book you should read called "Shakespeare's Philosophy" by Colin McGinn. The subtitle is "Discovering the meaning behind the plays" and he does a better job of it than many critics I have read. He looks at the plays from the point of view of the philosophical currents of Shakespeaare's day. I bring it up because he discusses Hamlet's despair and he has a chapter on "Shakespeare and psychology." Highly recommended.
--Carl