The Contribution of Psychological Theories in Literary Criticism

AbstractDealing with human behavior in almost all aspects of human endeavor, psychological theories have made their contributions into different fields of studies. Literature study is not an exception. Literary criticism, for instance, is conspicuously based on psychological theories. Acquaintance with these theories in the literary criticism is so significant that understanding it will be close to impossible unless one has good grasp of psychological theories. Most of these theories such as humanism by Rogers, Maslow and Erickson, evolutionary psychology by Bolles and Freud‘s ideas are of paramount importance in literary criticism. This study aims at introducing the psychological theories used and the contributions in literary criticism