Theodore Dreiser and Psychology :: essays research papers

At the clip of Theodore Dreisers writings world culture was looking to find the psychological reasons for societys miscreants. Psychology was the new science fad payable to the touristedity of Freud and other psychologists. People were beginning to delve into the world of the subconscious as the source of their troubles. No longer were all mental illnesses considered maladies of the brain. Some were existence able to be treated through the treatment of the psyche, a Freudian term. Hypnotism was a popular method of therapy. By investigating the dreams and apart(p) memories psychotherapist believed they could find the root of the afflictions of their patients. The lounging couch now so greatly associated with the psychotherapeutic method of free association was just coming into popular use.This time period reflects the ideas that surrounded Dreiser. Growing up poor in Indiana as the ninth of ten children in a near Catholic Ger slice immigrant family, Dreiser received little form al breeding as his family moved from town to town. While able to secure a college education at the University of Indiana he only managed to stay enrolled for one year. However, he was voracious reader. One of his favorites was Dr. Sigmund Freud, the preeminent psychologist during Dreisers life. This fascination with psychological theories as well as his ability to understand them would become a major trademark of his later work such as Sister Carrie, in which he details the rise and fall of a working girl. It is similarly predominant in his most successful work An American Tragedy, in which he spins the tale of a psychopathic, overly ambitious young man who will stop at nothing including murder to attain wealthiness and great status.Sister Carrie is preoccupied with Dreisers statement that society is both concerned with the societal demands for material success. This is the sociological declaration made in this novel. The author makes the reader see this. Take the following pas sageA woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes. No matter how young, it is one of the things who wholly comprehends. There is an indescribably faint gentle wind in the matter of mans app arel which somehow divides for her those who are worth glancing at and those who are not. Once an individual has passed this faint berth on the way downward he will get no glance from her. There is another line at which the dress of a man will cause her to study her own.