The aim of this study is to explore the fundaments of all psychoanalytic interpretative models, and especially the psychoanalytic literary criticism. Drawing from different fields as affect theory, neuropsychology and Lacan's structural psychoanalysis, strong evidence is found that language in itself contains and transmits affects.The empiric study indicates that different readers of a text, regardless of their interpretation of the text, show similar changes in mood as a function of the text. This seems to be possible as an effect of the separation of the sign between the signifier and the signification. And this supports that the signifier has some kind of direct access to the affects. This is due to the fact that the signifier belongs to the imaginary protolinguistic level while the signification belongs to the symbolic and linguistic level of a higher order.

The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.