PSYCHOBY ALFRED HITCHCOCK: A FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL

THRILLER.

Ms. Kirti Prakash Sangole


ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis is a different term to describe and it gives the idea of human
behavior. According to Joseph Schwartz, the psychoanalysis is in three boundaries, and when
these boundaries are separated from psychoanalysis a new field of science appears in front of us
which was given by Sigmund Freud in the year 1896. This theory of psychoanalysis are further
put forward in the form of novels, poetries, dramas and films also. A direct development of
psychoanalysis can be felt in the film tradition. On the basis of this, Alfred Hitchcock came up
with the first psychological thriller which was a surprise package for the audience. In the film we
find that the theory of unconsciousness is very much strong. The film gives a theme that
dominance of the past over the present. Psycho provides us with the Freudian terms such as-id,
superego and ego very clearly through the characters especially Norman and Marion. The film
represents the psychotic behavior of main characters, Freudian slip of tongue and finally a major
issue of presenting the female characters as anything but tangential male character. Psycho
comments of the desires of human mind and its quest which are also the characteristic feature
observed in Greek tragedies and also in Shakespeares drama. Through this film we enter the
human life and have the potential to replace our fantasies. In short Psycho focuses on the darker
unknown aspects of Human life and human relationship.
When you want to know how things really work. Study them when theyre coming apart.
- William Gibbson, Zero History





PSYCHOBY ALFRED HITCHCOCK: A FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL
THRILLE



INTRODUCTION

Talking about once feelings defeats the purpose of having those feelings. Once you try to put
the human experience into words, it becomes little more than a spectator sport. Everything must
have a cause, and a name. Every random thought must have a root in something else.
- Derek Landy, Death Bringer.

When someone talks about psychology and psychoanalysis it is wrongly taken to
be as the mental abnormalities in a person and many a times declared as psychic. But actually we
humans are often not aware of many of the factors that determine our emotions and behavior.
These are all the unconscious factors. And these unconscious factors many a times create
unhappiness and becoming the troubling personality trait in a particular person. These troubling
traits may be the difficulties in work, love relationships, disturbances in mood and self esteem.
These traits which are developed occurs not all of a sudden but are found that the factors grow
into a human personality slowly and the frequency being continuous which makes the person
different from what actually hes being and all these terms can be learned and understood in the
psychoanalysis.

However, Author Joseph Schwartz suggests that psychoanalysis is a difficult
term to describe as it gives the idea of human behavior through unconscious repressed ego, and
denial of everyday mental state. In turn we find that he suggests psychoanalysis to be considered
in three boundaries.

1. A boundary with literature
2. A boundary with psychiatry
3. A boundary with academic psychology (5).

Literature and psychoanalysis share a concern with the human subject and in it
both deals with the complexities and contradiction of human actions and emotional life. We find
an example for this in the literature. Such as Oedipus complex in Hamlet and Oedipus Rex.
While, psychiatry and psychoanalysis both find their common way for finding out effective
treatment for human mental anguish. On the other hand according to Schwartz the third
boundary of psychoanalysis being academic psychology, which is actually related to the physical
science (5). If we separated psychoanalysis from all these boundaries we truly get a new field of
science which is given by Freud in 1896.
Actually, psychoanalysis is a psychological and psychotherapeutic theory
conceived in the late 19
th
and early 20
th
century by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalysis itself is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders by investigating
the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind (4). The very fact that people
could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining an
insight were given by Sigmund Freud. According, to him it is only having a cathartic experience
can the person be helped and cured (2). While the theories of Freud were considered to be
shocking at the time and continue to create a debate and controversy, his work had a profound
influence on a number of disciplines as- psychology, literature, sociology, anthropology etc. and
theories include dream work, oedipal conflict, humor work, satisfying the ideal self. It has been
integrated into our culture through novels, poetries, drama and even film criticism.
Psychoanalysis made its presence felt most directly through the development of film tradition.
Film being relatively a fresh medium for public expression and originated around the same time
when the psychoanalysis began. A film tends to produce a much clearer analysis of particular
film, as well as the medium rather than the literature.
For the following paper I selected a film, which randomly came to mind as
suitable for the brief analysis in context with psychoanalysis. Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho was one
of the first psychological thrillers, shocking its audience with the visual bombardment of terror
(6). Sometimes there is nothing scarier than a normal appearing person to be a psychopath and a
killer..




PSYCHO
Psycho a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960 is considered as the first
psychological film and is famously known as psychological thriller. Psycho gives the visual
bombardment of terror to the audience. The film very closely parallels the psychoanalytic goals
put forward by Sigmund Freud. Psycho focuses on the darker, unknown aspects of human. We
find that in the film Psycho, the theory of unconscious is very much the answers. Secondly, the
psychotic behavior of the main characters, Freudian slip of tongue and finally, a major issue of
presenting the female character as anything but tangential male character. All these things create
neurosis in the viewing audience also. The film points out one prevalent theme according to
Robin Woods is that the dominance of the past over the present.
The film starts with Marion Crane a secretary in Phoenix, Arizona and who steals
$ 40,000 to help her divorced boyfriend Sam Loomis. The representation of places such as
Phoenix, Arizona and the amount stolen prepares the audience for a detective type story; and sets
a goal of the entire detective story to solve the mystery. Marion flees of in the car just to escape
from being caught in the cause of theft. But, she cannot drive the car to long as it rains heavily
and decides to spend the night in an isolated motel rather than to drive in the rain. In this the
escape of Marion from the judgment, where her super-ego attempts to enforce conscious
morality. In the next scene were the officer is found pulling up to Marions parked car;
represents her last chance to listen to the forces of the super-ego and suppress he desires. Her
attempts fail and she continues on her path, watching superego disappear through her rear view
mirror.
We are now introduced her to motel owner Norman Bates, who tells Marion that
customers rarely visit his place because of his location being older and place being less travelled.
He also informs her that he stays there with his mother. At this point the audiences are
completely convinced by the good character of Norman as behaves like a normal motel owner
greeting and helping his customer. But, later through the eyes of Marion audience finds that
Norman speaks with his unseen mother and finally, realizing that his mother is dead. Norman is
seen not to function in the present without disturbance from his dead mother (1). To this Donald
Spoto says that we are encouraged to resent the power of the dead to influence the life and the
power of the past to affect the present (6). It is the past which has the ability to fragment our
present and so is the case with Norman. Again the motel represented is deep, dark, ugly in which
secret about twisted and demented soul, rise up into consciousness like the Freudian id. Later,
we see that after Marion retiring to her room, and undressing in her room, Norman watches her
through a peephole in his office wall. When she is taking the shower, suddenly a image of
women appears and kills her. Immediately Norman arrives and assumes that his mother
committed the murder in turn cleans the bathroom, places and sinks the body and car in nearby
swamp.
Further, we find that Arbogast (detective of this film) is murdered in the same
manner as Marion in the same motel, having gone to find Marion. Later, when Sam and Lila
(boyfriend and sister of Marion respectively.) who in turn is now in search of Marion and
Arbogast enter the motel. But, they immediately get with intention of Norman. Norman again
peeps from the peephole for Lila, and then again tried to murder her. But, she escapes and finally
the truth is revealed that its Norman who dresses like his mother (who is dead now) and killing
is done. This shows the psychological problem in the character of Norman.
The whole film is shown into pieces travelling from one scene to another in
different areas and scenes taking place within different characters. The audience has to put
together all these pieces. Though it is difficult to create a whole out of pieces, but one way
psychoanalysis attempts is through the examination of unconsciousness. The unconscious in a
psychological sense is- the idea that an individual has within him activities of which he is not
aware. The activities are termed as id or unconscious desires along with a super-ego or conscious
perception, which creates a persons ego (3) .This model presented by Freud, can be clearly seen
in Marion. Her journey from a civilized world of normality to chaotic world of abnormality
(from conscious; superego to unconscious; id). Like Marion, we find Norman descent is also
portrayed in this film. But, his descent is represented much of in a graphical manner. Eg:
surrounding his peep hole into Marions room next to his parlor was the pictures of classical rape
scenes. As Norman watches Marion undress, his desires are made known to us consciously
through the paintings. Marions undressing shows his fetishisistic tendencies (over- investment
in parts of the body) (1).
When Norman stabs Marion in the shower, the scene proceeds in a very close up
manner. This is done with image of circle is repeated- first the toilet bowl, then circular water
head of shower and then open mouth of Marion. While the painting shows the unconscious
desires which are fulfilled by Normans conscious desire. It is this unconscious desire that makes
him psychotic. This psychosis stems from Normans relationship with his mother i.e according to
Freud and Lacan consciousness is determined by the unconscious, which is itself determined by
the experiences of early childhood and more of chiefly by parent child relationship. Here, we
find the actual fact of Norman and his mother relationship and her death; which explains us that
Norman himself killed his mother and also the man whom Normans mother wanted to marry.
Normans uncommon childhood and dualistic adulthood can also be explained and understood
through this film by Freudian primal scene. The primal scene refers to the moment in a childs
psychological development when it, unseen, watches his mother and lover together in bed.
According to Daniel Dervin the primal scene is problematic for a child and may underlie most
dualistic thoughts (5). Moreover, it may lead to the linking of sexual satisfaction and danger. All
these characters are fit in the profile of Norman. In normal development of the Oedipus complex
takes over- the child becomes aware of his father and his strength/ power and in turn finds a
substitute to fulfill his desires.
In Psycho, we find that like Macbeths quest for kingship, Normans quest for an
identity comments on the universality of the desires of the human mind. This closely resembles
psychoanalytic theory. Also, like Shakespeare, Greek tragedies and psychoanalysis this quest is
at the cost of female identity. In Psycho, women often placed as cursory to the development of
the male character (5). This film ends up with the drudging up of the car, with Marions dead
body in the trunk, bringing into the conscious of the audience the horrible results of the id; and
hence we are encouraged to piece together the story of the human psyche.
Through this we see that the term psychoanalysis enters the human life and has
the potential to replace our fantasies about the human relationships with a real understanding of
human relationship need. Actually, psychoanalysis gives the human a freedom to explore its
inner conflicts about relational needs and provides a space to resolve the conflict. It teaches us
that human relationships are an integral part of our life, growth and development.











REFERENCES


1. Autumn Miller, An Analysis of Psycho; 2009.
2. Francoise, Unconscious critical terms for literary study. Frank Lentricchia and
Thomas McLaughlin; Eds. Chicago; 1990.
3. Sigmund Freud, the ego and the id. New York. W.W Norton and company.
4. Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory; 2010.
5. Thomas Ventura, All Psych Journal; April, 2002.
6. Robin Wood, Hitchcocks film, New York, 1977.