The Psychology of Jane Eyre

1. The Psychology of Jane Eyre

2. The Psychology of Jane Eyre • Non-Freudian explanations • Mainly relevant to first two chapters • Freudian explanations • Relevant to whole novel

3. Non-Freudian explanations Particular to the first two chapters

4. Modelling • Modelling - copying adult’s behaviour • Reed children model mother’s behaviour

5. Social Learning Theory Learning from observation

6. Fight or Flight • Flight - Jane usually hides behind the curtain • Fight - when badly hit by John she fights. • Adrenaline - Autonomic response • Arousal reduced by either Fight or Flight.

7. Our response to threat THREAT Slide 1.7

8. Obedience to Authority • Milgram - Potentially lethal electric shocks to a stranger. • Servants do not support Jane. • They are obedient to Mrs Reed.

9. Obedience to Authority “Behavior that is unthinkable in an individual who is acting on her own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders.”

10. Milgram: Touch Proximity: Victim received a shock only when the victims hand rested on a shock plate. The teacher had to force his hand on it. Required physical contact with the victim.

11. Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response

12. Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response Neutral Stimulus

13. Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response Neutral Stimulus

14. Classical Conditioning Conditioned Response Conditioned Stimulus

15. Little Albert Rats Dogs Bunnies Santa Claus Coats

16. Classical Conditioning • The Red Room • Jane’s uncle (Mrs Reed’s husband) died here. • ‘Ghost’ appears and Jane is frightened • Red room elicits fear in Jane • Women shut away in rooms

17. Labelling theory • Jane feels that she is labelled by Mrs Reed as: • useless • noxious • and not • brilliant • handsome • romping, etc

18. Modified Labeling Approach Labeling: Conceptions Become Personally Relevant Labeled Persons Response Secrecy, Withdrawal etc. Negative Consequences Self-esteem, Networks Vulnerability to Chronicity Societal Conceptions of What it Means To Have a Mental Illness Not Labeled Societal Conceptions Not Relevant to Self No Consequences Due to Labeling

19. Perceptual priming • In the red room • Jane thinks of the dead coming back from the grave when their dying wishes have not been carried out. • Then a moving light is seen as a ghost • The grown-up Jane (writing) believes it was most likely a lantern being carried across the lawn.

20. Priming • Pass out demonstration sheets

21. Priming demonstration • Unscramble the following word: • L T E P A Answer: P E T A L P L A T E

22. Priming • Why did half the class say plate and the other half say petal? • They were primed to do so • There were two different sheets of unscrambled words

23. Priming sheet 1 Answer: K N I F E S P O O N F O R K C U P S A U C E R P L A T E • Unscramble the following word: • F I N E K • O P O N S • K R O F • P U C • E C U S A R • L T E P A

24. Priming sheet 2 Answer: P A N S Y L E A F S T A L K B U D B L O S S O M P E T A L • Unscramble the following word: • N Y P A S • F E L A • K T A L S • D U B • L O B S O M S • L T E P A

25. Freudian explanations Relevant to whole novel

26. The Ego and Mechanisms of Defense (1936) Anna Freud • Repression • Displacement • Denial • Projection • Reaction Formation • Intellectualization • Rationalization • Undoing • Sublimation • Identification with the Agressor

27. The Ego deals with Id, Superego, and Reality by: • 1. Secondary process • Ideal, but especially for children not always possible • 2. Defense mechanisms • Sometimes, the best anyone can do. But can be used maladaptively • 3. Symptoms (neurotic) • Last resort, things are bad when you have to use these

28. Three types of anxiety • Neurotic Anxiety • Fear of being overwhelmed by unacceptable Id impulses [Ego vs. Id] • Moral Anxiety • Fear of being punished by the Superego [Ego vs. Superego] • Reality Anxiety • Fear of danger in the outside world [Ego vs. Reality]

29. Repression • The most basic defense mechanism • The use of anti-cathexis to keep a memory or wish from becoming conscious • Repression is a component of almost every other defense mechanism • Most defense mechanism = repression + ….

30. Repression • Gateshead from family • Lowood from an institution • Thornfield from within a relationship • Moor House from within • Ferndean - release from repression

31. Repression • Rochester locks Bertha in the attic and tries to forget he has a wife.

32. Vagina Dentata • Victorian morality tale but myth is found in many cultures • Sex with strange women is dangerous • Freud - vagina - men are reminded of castration / also seen as mouth.

33. Vagina Dentata • Rochester has had at least one mistress and is metaphorically bitten by losing her to another man. • Bertha wounds Mason and becomes a Vagina Dentata • Sexual repression - St John Rivers

34. Displacement • The second most basic defense mechanism • Definition: The transfer of psychic energy from a repressed object-cathexis to a more acceptable object • The “more acceptable” object will in some way be associated with (usually resembling) the original object • Seen in phobias

35. Displacement in Jane Eyre • Rooms - not connected by plot but by emotions • Emotions are displaced onto the rooms • Red Room - Jane is locked into when a child • Room next to Bertha’s - whilst left alone to tend Mason • Bertha’s room - Bertha is locked and becomes(?) mad.

36. Displacement in Jane Eyre • For transgressing the limits of proper female behaviour • Jane is imprisoned by John Reed (via his mother) • Bertha is imprisoned by Rochester • Emotions: Fear, Hysteria, Madness and Claustrophobia.

37. Projection • Attributing an unacceptable thought or feeling or your own to someone else instead of yourself • This involves repression, plus an additional factor • Ego senses something unacceptable from somewhere, but convinces self it is external • Changes neurotic anxiety into reality anxiety • Seen in paranoia

38. Projection • Projection - Mrs Reed - Jane should be more sociable and childlike. • Is John Reed sociable and childlike? • Why does Mrs Reed spoil her children? • Part of the reason why Mrs Reed puts Jane down. • ‘If Jane is Bad then my children are good’

39. Undoing • Performing a ritualistic act to “undo” an unacceptable act or thought • Jane’s fugue or flight from Rochester after she nearly entered into a bigamous marriage.

40. Sublimation • Two definitions of sublimation • Displacement of an impulse to a completely socially acceptable, socially approved outlet • A displacement which discharges all the psychic energy bound up in the original impulse successfully • Jane could have sublimated her desire for Rochester by becoming a missionary’s wife but instead finds spiritual meaning in human experience.

41. Sublimation • Perhaps Brontë is sublimating her wish to criticize Victorian attitudes to women by writing Jane Eyre. A more acceptable activity. • Although many men then believed that writing was an inappropriate activity for women!

42. Identification with the Aggressor • Anna Freud named this one as a defense mechanism • The basis of the resolution of the Oedipus Complex • Jane enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with Rochester.

43. Split Personality • Unable to face up to trauma so personality is split. • One personality can comment upon how the other has been affected by trauma. • Disassociation

44. Multiple Personality Disorder • Presence of two or more distinct identities, each with its own unique, and enduring way of relating to the world or self • At least two of these identities recurrently take control of the person’s behavior • An inability to recall important personal information to an extent that is more than ordinary forgetfulness

45. Causes • Childhood trauma – usually sexual abuse before age 5 • Experts believe alter arises to protect person from overwhelming memories and protect secrets from outsiders

46. Case Study: Eve • Thigpen and Cleckley, 1953 • Rooted from traumatic events witnessed growing up in South during Depression • Eve White – wife and mother; Eve Black – party girl; Jane – mature intellectual • Total of 22 personalities

47. Case Study: Sybil • True name – Shirley Mason • Set the standard for MPD as a syndrome rooted in child abuse • 16 separate personalities all having unique talents and characteristics, such as piano playing or having British accent; some were male • Dr. Wilbur – Freudian psychologist • 1998 – several publications exposed Sybil case as scam • Dr. Herbert Spiegel - only multiple personality in psychoanalytic setting; just extremely suggestible hysteric • To ensure the book deal, Sybil had to be multiple; Dr. Wilbur’s archives will be opened in 2005…

48. Split Personality • Jane is the good woman who participates in the Victorian patriarchal society without rocking the boat too much for most of the book. • Bertha is the bad woman locked in the attic. • The attic is rather like the unconscious mind • Rochester is suppressing a memory that pains him.

49. Split Personality • Is Bertha Bad? • By modern standards? • Compared with Rochester? • People who do not fit into society (or are bad) are labelled mad. • Brontë is using this split to criticise in a more acceptable form the treatment of women. (Sublimation?)

50. Castration complex • Part of little boy’s psychosexual development. • As a punishment for loving mother, father threatens castration • Resolved by the boy identifying with father.