Charles Mauron was a French translator of contemporary English authors, including E. M. Forster, and literary critic making use of Psychoanalytic literary criticism

Psychoanalytic literary criticism

Psychoanalytic literary criticism refers to literary criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud....

. He is noted for his books Aesthetics and Psychology (1935) and Des métaphores obsédantes au mythe personnel (1962). He was married from 1919 to 1949 to the writer Marie Mauron (1896-1986), and their home in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.-Geography:...

 became a focal-point in the inter-war years for their friends in the Bloomsbury Group

Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...

.

Psychocriticism

In 1963, Charles Mauron conceived a structured method to interpret literary works via psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

. The study implied four different phases:

1. The creative process is akin to dreaming awake: as such, it is a mimetic
   Mimesis
   Mimesis , from μιμεῖσθαι , "to imitate," from μῖμος , "imitator, actor") is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the...
   
   , and cathartic
   Cathartic
   In medicine, a cathartic is a substance that accelerates defecation. This is in contrast to a laxative, which is a substance which eases defecation, usually by softening feces. It is possible for a substance to be both a laxative and a cathartic...
   
   , representation of an unconscious impulse
   Impulse (psychology)
   An impulse is a wish or urge, particularly a sudden one. It can be considered as a normal and fundamental part of human thought processes, but also one that can become problematic, as in a condition like obsessive-compulsive disorder....
   
    or desire that is best expressed and revealed by metaphors and symbols.
2. Then, the juxtaposition of a writer's works leads the critic to define symbolical themes.
3. These metaphorical networks are significant of a latent inner reality.
4. They point at an obsession just as dreams can do. The last phase consists in linking the writer's literary creation to his own personal life.

The author cannot be reduced to a ratiocinating self: his own more or less traumatic

Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

 biographical past, the cultural archetypes that have suffused his "soul" ironically contrast with the conscious self, The chiasmic relation between the two tales may be seen as a sane and safe acting out

Acting out

Acting out is a psychological term from the parlance of defense mechanisms and self-control, meaning to perform an action in contrast to bearing and managing the impulse to perform it. The acting done is usually anti-social and may take the form of acting on the impulses of an addiction Acting out...

. A basically unconscious

Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...

 sexual impulse is symbolically fulfilled in a positive and socially gratifying way, a process known as Sublimation

Sublimation (psychology)

In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defence mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behaviour, possibly converting the initial impulse in the long term...

.