Psychoanalytic Analysis: Reading
Active Reading
The most important step toward crafting the most effective psychoanalytic analysis is to become as familiar as possible with the text in which you intend to analyze. Reading a text for analysis purposes requires a bit more work than simply reading for pleasure. This is called active reading and often involves note taking, annotating, and really immersing yourself into the text in order to be familiar with the content.
The most important step toward crafting the most effective psychoanalytic analysis is to become as familiar as possible with the text in which you intend to analyze. Reading a text for analysis purposes requires a bit more work than simply reading for pleasure. This is called active reading and often involves note taking, annotating, and really immersing yourself into the text in order to be familiar with the content.
A few tips for active reading are:
- Read the text more than once. After becoming initially familiar with it, a second or third reading will give you the chance to pay closer attention to details and ask yourself questions along the way.
- Mark up the text and take notes. While reading, be sure to mark or take note of anything that you have questions about or feel would be useful for your analysis. These passages can include anything from a word you need to look up to a point in the plot that seems significant. However, for historical analyses, there are some additional components you’ll need to look out for as well.
- Ask Questions. As you reread your text, write down questions you have about the text.
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“Whenever you see this color, know that I am speaking directly to you! Firstly, I wanted you to know that, for my sample psychoanalysis, I studied Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour.’ This is the copy I used for my analysis. To view my initial thoughts and selected “key quotes” from my active reading, visit the document on the ‘inventing’ tab.” -Delaney
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