On The Neurotic Psychology In William Faulkner's Novels

William Faulkner is one of the well known writers of America in the 20 th century. He depicts the vivid process of psychology evolvement of insane characters protagonists and creatively links the changing society of the Deep South of America and the psyche developments of individuals. Within the "own little postage stamp of native soil" which signifies for the Yoknapatawpha, the fictional country established in Faulkner's works, the gloomy figures and their insane personalities mirror the astonishing fact of decaying society, ever-eminent families, and the suffering paradigm of all human beings.The scholars and experts have employed Freud or Jung psychological theories to analyze libido in personality development in Faulkner's novels so far, while neglecting the family's influence on individual psychology evolvement. In the paper, through studying Karen Homey'neurotic psychoanalysis and personality theory, I first discuss the writing motif and motivation of Faulkner, then go further on analyzing the neurotic personality of personae in his novels to examine the deep psychological reasons of insane character development. As a positive psychology thought, Horney's neurotic personality theory acts vibrantly in analyzing relations between family influence and individual personality.Taking the neurosis theory, the paper analyzes three neurotic trends of insane personalities of creation psychology of Faulkner. The formation of insane character and behavior of heroes also reflect the anxious nerves when the writer was writing. Discussing the neurotic personalities of the protagonists in the three novels of The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Light in August in the perspectives of mentality and acts, the paper studies the influence of society and family on the neurotic personalities which provides a new way on interpreting literature output.Based on the theory of neurotic personality, the paper summarizes the reasons for neurosis development. Any disharmonious family relations influence parents to care for their children in a distorted or absent manner, which provides ample breeding grounds for the seeds of neurosis. For the influence of society and cultural heritage, the seeds of neurosis can sprout into the branches of anxiety. A child who suffers from the disharmonious family relations would unable to deal with any complicated interpersonal relationships. What is worse, the child can start to adopt peculiar ways to fix the relations. The formation of ideal self is completed at this time when the conflict of ideal self and actual self drives the sensitive and delicate person of immature psyche into an all day fantasy land, and the sense control by the real self is replaced by a nervous disorder. The ruin of any normal and healthy personality can lead to self-harm, such as suicide, self-abuse, and self-abandonment.Based on the relations between family influence and insane characters, the neurosis and ideal self, the inner conflicts and actual self, the paper concludes that William Faulkner depicts the declining historical stories of ever-eminent families from the aspects of macro-society and micro-family, deformity relations and insane characters, analyzes the relations between the human nature of society, family and individual. His vivid images of Deep South have greatly influenced the field of psychoanalysis, attracted a great number of writers and reader to care about the issues of psychology. In the field of literature, Faulkner brilliantly depicts many images of insane characters who are indulging in a peculiar society of Deep South, Puritanism, and family status, influences a great number of American writers who are contemporary with him and after him, stands as a representative of American South literature.