The Science of Sleep
This movie is all about the character of a man who is living in his exciting world of dreams. It illustrates the adventures of Stephane (protagonist), an adult but childish whose brain broadcasts like his own television program that cannot determine reality. He is full of doubt about his reality so he enjoys sleeping because that is where he is comfortable.
This film is a good example of psychoanalysis because it shows us how dreams were formed and how reality may affect subconscious activities. In the scenes of his dream, it shows that people in his dreams are those people who were encountered. The subconscious is working at his dreams because all his pleasures and desires are happening in his dreams but in reality, it was the opposite. Even the id is obviously illustrated when he talked to his neighbor that he really wanted to be married, he said what he really loved about her. It has obscene language when he talks about his pleasure which reflects the subconscious desire toward that woman. At the beginning and middle part of the film, it shows nudity and sexual situations, but it explains that it is normal for a man to feel desires toward women. The coworker of Stephane pushes him to talk about that, he’s teaching Stephane what he needs to do. Stephane is very creative and that creativity of him comes from his dreams, so he likes inventions and making a craft, these reflect his personality. It manifests his emotions and creativity while doing artwork. Through this film, we could understand the people who are struggling with this behavior need to be understood and be accepted by society.
Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a good movie for psychoanalysis because it tries to communicate to the audience what a certain psychological disorder is like. By telling the story from the point of view of the main character who has a psychological disorder, the audience gets to experience what it’s like being mentally ill.
Joker (2020)
Joker is another example of movies that are good for psychoanalysis because it explores the ego. In the movie, we follow Arthur, who is a hardworking but unfortunate man. He tries to fix his life but no matter what he does, it always ends up against him. It came to a point that he lost his hope that he can make his life better. The transition to becoming the joker started when he killed his mother because from there, he already had no one to consider.
He escapes from being Arthur as he is unable to overcome his issues. He believed that for him to be happy, he has to change. He discovers a new personality, the Joker, a different version of Arthur without any sense of morality that he thinks can adapt to the environment he’s in. Now he just wants to satisfy his desire to kill people.
Perfect Blue
This movie drives the viewer crazy because what the character perceives in the story is what we can also see, so we can’t define reality and her dream or subconscious. Even the viewers experienced in the meantime what this disorder feels like. This is a good example also for psychoanalysis because it tells the subconscious experiences of the protagonist. She had a dream to become more popular so what she did was she left her previous job which is in the entertainment industry even though she is popular at that time she still chose the life of selling her own body. This movie has erotic images, so I think it has significance for her, so we can analyze why this disorder developed and can’t control. She allows other people to touch her for the sake of her dream but as the movie progresses she developed a mental disorder which she cannot define the reality over her dreams because her previous self and innocence are talking with herself. She wants to go back to her previous life because her moral principle (superego) is fighting over her pleasure principle (id) but doesn’t know her reality and can’t turn back. Furthermore, she wants to chase her dream to become popular but her previous self and personality don’t allow this to happen, so she suffers from a mental disorder. She even killed the other people because of this disorder. The reality of her was in her subconscious too, she thought she killed her workmates in her dream but in reality she did.
Black Swan
This movie is a good example of psychoanalysis because it is metaphorical in a way that the character achieves artistic perfection because of the psychological and physical challenges one might encounter. It shows how our unconscious activities might affect our reality and suffer from mental disorders. The character of Nina is an obedient daughter, fragile and responsible but it slowly destroys by her dream to get the role of a black swan, as a result, she starts suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), anorexia, bulimia, disobedient to her mother and falls under pressure and perfectionist. I can see how aggressive is to get the dream that it might make us do whatever it is that will satisfy our desires. I interpret that her sexual pleasure and erotic images in the movie are important because her role as a black swan is to become seductive and aggressive but because she has an innocent personality, she can’t make it. This helps her to let go of her unconscious desires so to get that dream, she must break the innocence in her. She wanted to play this white and black swan role so she kept on practicing but the superego and id are fighting in her that she’s not aware of so her hallucinations are so real that it is difficult to differentiate between what we are watching is her imagination or reality. The scenes were disturbing, fascinating, and mysterious in a way that it was tough to interpret reality. As I watch this, I understand how a person with a mental disorder suffers that she might kill herself.
