The Mind According to Shakespeare

Dr. Krims a psychoanalyst for more than three decades takes readers into the sonnets and characters of Shakespeare and unveils the Bard''s talent for illustrating psychoanalytical issues. These hidden aspects of the characters are one reason they feel real and thus have such a powerful effect explains Krims. In exploring Shakespeare''s characters readers may also learn much about their own inner selves. In fact Krims explains in one chapter how reading Shakespeare and other works helped him resolve his own inner conflicts.Topics of focus include Prince Hal''s aggression Hotspur''s fear of femininity Hamlet''s frailty Romeo''s childhood trauma and King Lear''s inability to grieve. In one essay Krims offers a mock psychoanalysis of Beatrice from Much Ado about Nothing. All of the essays look at the unconscious motivations of Shakespeare''s characters and in doing so both challenge and extend common understandings of his texts.