Lionel Trilling is one of the few critics of any standing to have actually written at some length on the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature. Aside from the incidental use which he makes of psychoanalytic ideas in the regular course of his criticism, he has several times directed his attention specifically to evaluations of what this relationship has been in the past and may be in the future. In particular, there are three essays which may well serve as milestones in his consideration of the subject. Each constitutes a clear statement of a position—even when the position is somewhat ambivalent—and, taken in chronological order, they show a steady progress toward mastery of the scientific ideas themselves and their integration into criticism.
Trilling begins from strength. Even in the earliest of the essays it is evident that he has more knowledge about psychoanalysis than most other critics have so far demonstrated. His careful formulation of its concepts in non-technical language shows that he understands their boundaries as well as what they contain; his conclusions are conservative and judicially stated; his suggestions for new uses of these ideas in criticism are brilliant. And yet in this same essay his manner leaves the impression of a mind not wholly made up, of matter not wholly assimilated, of positive assertions weakened by reservations which are stated just as positively—in short, of a reluctance to follow to its logical conclusion his announced acceptance of Freud's ideas. This striking series of advances toward and retreats from psychoanalysis diminishes in the later essays—although it does not disappear—and they show a surer grasp of the ideas, less disposition to quarrel with them, and a smoother handling of the whole subject. (pp. 202-03)
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