Psychodynamics of Love and Desire

PSYCHODYNAMICS OF LOVE AND DESIRE: Hammad Mushtaq brings forth the importance of Psychoanalytic Criticism as a tool that fetches the forgotten desires and fantasies from the 'reject-bin' of the unconscious. Psychoanalysis is one of the most important discoveries of the modern times which has enabled us to uncover the hidden mysteries of human mind and fill out the gapes of meanings and interpretation by discovering the latent layers of literary texts. The author investigates the psychodynamics of love and desire prevalent in Andrew Marvell's most famous poem To His Coy Mistress. Drawing mainly upon Sigmund Freud's concepts of the Id, the Ego and the Superego, he explores the psyche of the anonymous lover of the poem and analyzes the forces of desire and prohibition working in his the mind. The study postulates that the lover's mind is a battle ground of the Id, the Ego and the Superego, where, after a transient success of the Ego and the Superego, Id stands victorious.