ترقی پسند افسانہ کا نفسیاتی پہلو

Abstract

The Progressive Urdu short story is not merely a reflection of class struggle or economic disparity it is a mirror held up to the human mind and soul. Beneath its socially engaged surface lies a deep exploration of psychological states: inner conflict, suppressed desire, trauma, and the haunting burden of tradition. These stories do not just tell us what happens to people they show us what happens inside them.

Through characters both ordinary and fractured, the Progressive writers unveil lives shaped by deprivation, social injustice, and emotional isolation. Mothers, daughters, widows, and labourers each navigates a landscape of fear, longing, guilt, and moral dilemmas. Whether it is a woman silencing her own voice under the weight of duty, or a man crushed under the memory of a lost child, these figures inhabit a space where external oppression fuses with internal suffering.

Drawing upon psychological theories from Freud’s unconscious to Jung’s inner archetypes, and Adler’s inferiority complex, the stories blend sociology with soul. They do not romanticise suffering but humanise it،placing the reader inside the skin of the suffering self. Here, gender roles blur into emotional roles, and the private becomes political. In this way, the Progressive short story becomes not only a vehicle of resistance, but a poignant exploration of the fragile human psyche, torn between desire and deprivation, survival and silence.