Transcript of Psychoanalysis of T.S Eliot's "The Love Song of J.

Alfred Pr
Psychoanalysis of T.S Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
The Fundamentals of Freudian Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud: Austrian psychologist/neurologist. Established the idea that the subconscious
mind assists in how one perceives the world around them.

Personal neurotic crisis, observations of patients, and extended research assisted in the
development of the idea that our suppressed desires/thoughts/fears subconsciously affect us.

"Ego": the rational portion of the mind that regulates an individual’s desires and filters them for
social acceptance.

"Id" : the deep subconscious, houses the seemingly irrational thought process.

"Superego" : the filtration system within the psyche that assists an individual in gaining an
understanding of social cues.
Free Association
Freud introduced the method of free association (“A spontaneous, logically unconstrained and
undirected association of ideas, emotions, and feelings”)

"The fundamental technical rule of analysis," patients openly discussed their repressed thoughts in
a professional practice setting.

The subconscious's concealed thoughts/fears/desires came out in the form of dreams or writings.

Author's works serve as a manifestation of their subconscious.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Anxiety induced speaker, Prufrock centralizes his attention on himself throughout the poem.

The inability for this speaker to connect emotionally serves as a reflection of Eliot's inability to
develop emotional connections in his own life.

Ego dominates id (fear of rejection/means of self-defense).

Feels as if everyone is judging him as hard as he judges himself (superego).

T.S Eliot
Developed his love for literature early in his life, studied at Harvard as well as in Paris + Oxford.

During his marriage with his first wife(1915), Vivienne Haigh-Wood, he took a vow of chastity
(1928).

Had two other lovers, Emily Hale and Mary Trevelyan, extreme limited intimacy.

Remarried in 1957 to his secretary, Valerie Fletcher.

Efficacy of the Theory
Successful because...
Free Association Method explains the free association of images utilized by Eliot.
By examining Prufrock as a reflection of Eliot, I was able to clearly draw parallels between them
and gain a deeper understanding of the poem.
Failed because...
Free Association Method can be biased, how can we assure that the analyst and interpreter of the
literature can distinguish between actual repressed memories.
By restricting myself to examining free association method in regards to Eliot's free association of
images, it implies that these images were chosen at random and came out through his
subconscious.
Mostly based off of case studies and clinical observations, subjective to that individual that he
studied but does not work in every case.
Free Association Method and Free Association of Images
The poem is approached through a stream of consciousness style that are seemingly random but
actually serve to denote a unifying illustration of his anxiety.

Amplification of historical male figures over non-descriptive female figures displays his inner
unfamiliarity of emotional connections with women, where he deconstructs them to externally
focused characterizations ("arms that are braceleted and white"/"perfume from a dress").

He discusses and shifts between various images (a crab, a bug pinned on a wall), trapped and
unable to move forward.

Reflective of psychoanalysis: this alternation of images in a stream of consciousness style denote

the ailments within his subconscious.

Eliot's thoughts/desires/anxieties are represented through his free association of images to

demonstrate how his self-fixated psyche inhibits him from forming genuine connections.