Psychoanalysis and Crowd Psychology in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948)

Abstract

he objective of this work is to study the characters' psychological state, behavior and actions in the horror short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson which reflect her mental illness. It is to also study how the crowd or group of people in society can influence the individual behavior through a collective mind by applying the theories of Freud, Jung and Le Bon.