Adler and Khosro: Linking psychoanalysis and literature in the study of a complex character based on Nizami's poems

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Persian Language and Literature, Sa.C., Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.

Abstract

Psychological criticism is one of the new fields of literary criticism. A literary critic relying on psychological theories can analyze and describe the characters of a literary work according to a psychological theory. One of the theories of psychology is "theory of feelings of inferiority". This theory is the basis of the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler's individual school. Adler considers this feeling as the motivation of all human efforts. According to this psychologist, if the feeling of inferiority is not compensated by natural methods, it turns into an inferiority complex. In this article, the character of "Khosro" in the poem "Khosro and Shirin" Nizami, according to the principle of "feeling of inferiority" and mechanisms of compensation, in the theory of "Alfred Adler" and how the feeling of bitterness in Khosro appeared And his methods of compensation have been analyzed. The type of library research and its method is descriptive-analytical. The findings of the research show that Khosro - the main hero of the story - like any other human being has an inferiority complex, and to escape the feeling of inferiority and satisfy his superiority, he makes great efforts and uses false compensation methods. Despising oneself, expressing anger, choosing an alternative (for sweet love), murder, etc. . . Khosro's compensation methods are to achieve psychological balance. According to the obtained results, Khosro is a superior personality, he understood the feeling of inferiority and used different compensation mechanisms to compensate for it, finally, he achieves some spiritual balance by gaining Shirin.

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Research in Narrative Literature

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 14 July 2025

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