How about an up to date psychiatric reading of our favorite Dane?
Sure there’s been Freudian analysis of Hamlet since…well, Freud. It’s not new. He makes a good subject. I liked this one because it reads like Psych homework: “here’s a brief summary of the patient, here’s the emotions he’s experiencing, here’s how I characterize him and why, here’s how I would treat him…” I think it’s a bit more approachable than some of the traditional papers done on the subject.
There’s a really interesting book you should read called “Shakespeare’s Philosophy” by Colin McGinn. The subtitle is “Discovering the meaning behind the plays” and he does a better job of it than many critics I have read. He looks at the plays from the point of view of the philosophical currents of Shakespeaare’s day. I bring it up because he discusses Hamlet’s despair and he has a chapter on “Shakespeare and psychology.” Highly recommended.
–Carl