ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the terrain from several perspectives: early modern "faculty psychology"; the range of theories subsumed under the term "psychoanalysis"; and new developments in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology. The interrelated trajectories of psychology and William Shakespeare reflect the evolution of modern theories, as well as modifications in those theories when they encounter Shakespeare's plays and poems. Gail Kern Paster examines material metaphors of emotion in Shakespeare's language, grounded in contemporary psychological theories. Although Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud's disciple and rival, barely mentioned Shakespeare, his theories have affected criticism. The psychological terrain and Shakespearean commentary, both vast and complex, have interacted in response to changing personal, generational, professional, cultural, and political factors. From the 1970s, Shakespeare studies increasingly drew on major shifts in psychoanalytic thinking that had begun decades earlier. Jacques Lacan fit the critical ethos of post-modern culture, and his work became a dominant influence among American academics, including Shakespeareans.
