Here's an essay I wrote for a class on Alfred Hitchcock in college.
‘The stupid idiots! As if I don’t know what I’m doing. My technique is serious. I am consciously aware of what I am doing in all my work’ – Alfred Hitchcock on the suggestion that an aspect of Psycho (1960) was ‘unconscious’ [i]. From this intense reaction, we can easily assume that everything Hitchcock chooses to put into each frame of his film is intentional and an extremely ‘conscious’ decision. Furthermore, all the ideas that Hitchcock’s films represent, such as: society, modernity, post-modernity, the medium of film itself and say, Freud, are all intentional choices that the master of suspense makes. In this essay I will be focusing on the last of those ideas, namely the presence of Freudian concepts in his films. How does Hitchcock present Freud’s ideas in his films? Are some of his films more Freudian than others? What specific concepts of Freud does Hitchcock use in his films and are they presented wholly or are they altered to suit Hitchcock’s needs and/or beliefs?
While it can be argued that most of Hitchcock’s films (or perhaps, even, a large number of films in general) feature Freud’s theories and ideas, perhaps a few films stand out the most in the esteemed director’s filmography, namely: Spellbound (1945), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho. I will be extensively looking at Spellbound and Psycho and analyzing scenes from the films to really understand the extent to which Freud’s ideas are present in these films.
One of the concepts that Freud brings up in Civilization and its Discontents is that of repression in the development of individuals. The idea of repression, according to Freud, is the presence of an ‘unconscious’ force that prohibits individuals from speaking or recalling events that had severe traumatic effect on the individuals. In a way, the individuals “pushed the pathogenetic experiences in question out of consciousness”[ii] and Freud termed this possibility as repression. This idea is heavily prevalent in Hitchcock’s Spellbound and is pretty much the driving force behind the narrative of the film. The film focuses on the character of Anthony Edwards (Gregory Peck) who is brought into a mental hospital as a doctor but it is soon revealed that he is a patient with amnesia and cannot remember his real identity. With the help of Ingrid Bergman’s Dr. Constance Petersen, they attempt to figure out what memories Edwards is attempting to push out of his consciousness. This whole concept has its basis in Freud’s idea of repression. Throughout the film, recurring motifs in forms of visual cues for Anthony Edwards cause him to either faint or render him speechless and incapable of articulating what it is that is giving him such anguish. It is later revealed that an accident that happened in his childhood has caused the repression in his life that has left him racked with a strong feeling of guilt over the death of his brother. This correlation between the development of the guilt complex and repression of a childhood traumatic event is another aspect of Freud’s theories that he touches upon in Civilization and its Discontents: “When an instinctual trend undergoes repression its libidinal elements are turned into symptoms, and its aggressive components into a sense of guilt.” [iii] And this is precisely what happens in Spellbound. We see these Freudian ideas manifest themselves in the psychology of the character of Anthony Edwards or John Ballantyne, as is later revealed to be his true identity.
We can further see the importance of Freud’s ideas in Spellbound in the character of Dr. Constance Peterson. Constance is the protagonist of the film who shows further interest in Ballantyne when she realizes the deeper psychological implications of his anxiety. From the introduction of these two characters, Constance is perceived to be a maternal figure in the movie, especially for Ballantyne. This gives way to one of Freud’s most famous concept, that of the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex is a term that describes the desire a child has for his or her opposite sex parent and, if it is not resolved, the desire an adult may have in finding romantic partners that resemble their own opposite-sex parent[iv]. In Spellbound, Dr. Constance Peterson begins to take care of Ballantyne not unlike a motherly figure. In fact, long before the romance between the two leads is established, there are already nods towards Constance’s personality as being an extremely maternal one. However, it should be noted that this subtext does not remain throughout the whole picture. Once Ballantyne returns to the scene of his murder and is imprisoned, the film transforms into a typical Hollywood melodrama with the love interest doing what she can to get her one true love out of prison and be reunited with her. Her role as a doctor of psychiatry in a Freudian film transforms to a woman who is present for the sake of the male star.
We can elaborate further on the psychology of the human mind using one of Hitchcock’s most famous films: Psycho. Psycho already has the complicated relationship between a man and his mother (however deceased she may be…), the film also visually represents the elements of the psychology of the mind using the architecture of the three-story house that Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his mother lived in. The contemporary philosopher Slavoj Žižek brought about this idea of the human mind as being represented by the house in Psycho. He describes the three floors of the house: the basement, the ground floor and the first floor, as being representative of the ‘id’, the ‘ego’ and the ‘super-ego’.[v] Freud elaborates on these three concepts in his book. The Interpretation of Dreams: the id is the source of the need to satisfy all unconscious urges regardless of their realism or pragmaticism, the ego is the moral voice that bridges the gap between the id’s urge and the demands of reality and, lastly, the super-ego tries to suppress the urges of the id and encourages the ego to work more morally rather than realistically[vi].
Looking at a few specific recurring scenes in Psycho, we can see how exactly the house works as a representation of Norman’s mind with respect to its inhabitants. There are two different instances of activity happening on the stairs between the ground and the first floor. The first is when Arbogast (Martin Balsam), the private detective investigating the murder, walks up the stairs to the first floor only to be brutally murdered and thrown down the stairs. The second instance is when Norman carries the corpse of his mother down to the cellar to keep her contained if any people were to come investigating the disappearance of Arbogast. In the first instance, Arbogast enters the house and we are treated to point of view shots to show his view of the house. He then begins to ascend the stairs. As he does, the camera dollies back as Arbogast moves forward, creating a slight distancing effect that Hitchcock used repeatedly in Vertigo. This vertigo shot emphasizes the distance between the ground floor and the first floor and in a way, emphasizes the separation between the ego and the super-ego if we do believe that each floor is a psychological construct of the human mind. We cut to the door on the first floor opening slowly as the camera cuts back to Arbogast and then finally to the shot from above the whole landing from the top of the ceiling which Žižek refers to as God’s point of view. Then the mother, or Norman, bursts out from the door and stabs the poor detective to death, throwing him down the stairs in the process. Hidden in this short sequence is the idea of the super-ego. The super-ego, the ideas that we have accumulated from our guardians and as a result of our upbringing, can be summed up in the character of mother bursting from the first floor. She is the representation of Norman’s super-ego. Since there is, technically, no sane Norman present i.e. the ego, there is nothing to stop the super-ego from carrying out the bad or forbidden desires of the conscience as opposed to the ego ideal.
This may seem far-fetched but it makes complete sense if we view a similar scene later on in the film where Norman persuades his mother to move to the basement. This time, Norman enters the house acting as the ego, the moral voice, and goes up the stairs to his super-ego’s i.e. his mother’s room. However, unlike Arbogast’s murder, this time the camera doesn’t just cut to God’s point of view but takes us with it to the top of the angle. In a way, assuming the position of God distances us from the mind of Norman and the viewer is free to watch this as a third-party observer rather than a participator. Norman then emerges carrying what appears to be his mother down the staircase to the cellar, that is, from his super-ego to his id. This act of carrying her down is actually a shift in the psychological agency Wherever his mother is in the house, is what part of his psychological aspect can Norman emulate as his own mother. It is also no coincidence that the final reveal where we see Norman wearing his mother’s clothes and wig occurs in the cellar, the place of Norman’s inner, unconscious desires.
Psycho also contains several representations of Freud’s theory of the uncanny. In its original German text, ‘uncanny’ was ‘unheimlich’ which literally translates to ‘unhomely’. Freud describes this state of unhomeliness as something familiar that has suddenly become unfamiliar, or unhomely[vii]. Freud was particularly interested in the idea of the ‘uncanny double’ which is something that is very similar to the self, yet a separate entity altogether. They can be represented in a number of ways and Psycho expresses it most through its uses of mirrors and through the character relationships. It can be argued that Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) was Norman’s uncanny double or doppelganger. Simultaneously, it can also be argued that his mother is also a form of other to Perkins’ Norman, as her alter-ego. Freud argues that this separation is exactly what makes the doppelganger so effective in bringing fear to an individual. The identification with the ‘self’ along with the separation from the ‘other’. Marion and Norman are similar in their opposition. Their worlds are opposite to one another in the way day is the opposite to night. This is visually represented in the film by having either mirrors right behind the characters as the speak to one another, or by having the framing upon their characters be the reverse to one another. Perhaps, the most interesting moments where these two can be seen as the self and the other of one another are when Marion is driving to the motel in the rain and Norman sits captured at the end of the film. Both the characters stare at the viewer and give the hint of a smile. At this exact moment in Norman’s case, we also see an image of his mother’s skull superimposed onto his face. She is also part of this dynamic that Hitchcock has brought to us.
The use of this idea of the unfamiliar to perpetuate fear into the heart of the viewers was from a personal experience that Hitchcock had as a child where he was left alone as a child in the dark in his home. Despite it being his home, where he was most comfortable, the darkness and the lack of his parents took away the familiarity of his surroundings and replaced them with the fear that we experience from watching a film such as Psycho. Hitchcock himself says “Fear, you, see, is a feeling that people like to feel when they are certain of being in safety … but as one finds oneself in a familiar surrounding, and when one realizes that its only imagination which is responsible for the fear, one is invaded by an extraordinary happiness.”[viii] Hitchcock understands how what Freud says about the unfamiliarity of your surroundings can be used to manufacture this feeling of dread and fear which he thoroughly exploits in Psycho.
This use of the uncanny double is prevalent throughout the history of horror cinema. In The Shining (1980), which is just chock full of Freudian ideology, Stanley Kubrick uses the idea of the uncanny double in the form of twin girls and also, through the married couple that is staying in the hotel. They both work in opposition to one another and represent the polar ends of the spectrum. It could also be argued that the each of the main character represents different psychological aspects of the human mind. Jack Nicholson’s character could be one that slowly delves into the super-ego and then into the id, whereas Shelly Duval’s struggles to remain in her ego and tries to maintain her sanity. Much like the way Psycho does with Norman and his mother.
Calling Hitchcock’s understanding of Freud to be an unconscious matter is, frankly, an insult to the director. Spellbound, Psycho and Vertigo remain some of the most accurate representations of Freudian psychology to this date. With the amount of detail and possible interpretations of every frame in the two films, Hitchcock is able to deliver the most captivating films to his audience through a sincere understanding of the psychology of the human mind.
Works Cited:
[i] Smith, J. W. (2009). The Psycho File: A Comprehensive Guide to Hitchcock's Classic Shocker. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Pub. [ii] Freud, S. (1995). Five lectures on psycho-analysis. Penguin. [iii] Freud, S. (2015). Civilization and its Discontents. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Pres [iv] Freud, S. (1899). The Interpretation of Dreams. [v][v] Fiennes, S. (Director), & Zizek, S. (Writer). (2006). The Pervert's Guide to Cinema [Motion picture]. [vi] Freud, S. (1899). The Interpretation of Dreams. [vii] Freud, S. (2003). The Uncanny. New York: Penguin Books. [viii] Hitchcock, A., & Gottlieb, S. (2015). Hitchcock on Hitchcock: selected writings and interviews. Berkeley: University of California Press.
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