Maternal Superego in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)
Who doesn't know Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, Psycho? Released back in 1960, Psycho has proven to be one of the most famous film from the 60's. As though many of his films, Hitchcock's Psycho was heavily influenced by a theory called the psychoanalysis.
But hold on, what is psychoanalysis exactly?
Essentially, psychoanalysis is, among many things; a theory, a therapy, an instrument of research, and a profession. It's complex understanding of the psyche was a breakthrough in intellectual, medical, and sociological studies. First introduced by the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and later developed by Jacques Lacan, the study can be considered as part of psychology that according to Freud. is about memories, thoughts, feelings, phantasies, intentions, wishes, ideals, beliefs, psychological conflict, and all that stuff inside a person's mind.
It is also called a depth psychology due to it's assumption of an unconscious part of the mind. It talks about dynamic unconscious. Many of our everyday functions such as eating, walking, and even talking are unconscious. It's instinctive and intuitive, just like the human survival. The unconscious is conceived as a child within which affects the hidden forces of our behavior. The three elements of the unsconscious in psychoanalysis consists of id, ego, and superego.
 |
| Illustration of Psychotherapy. (source: corewellceu.com) |
Id represents the principle of pleasure or enjoyment. It is the most basic instinctive psychic energy in the human soul. They consist of eros and thanatos. Eros is a constructive collection of psychic energy, meaning that it helps build and care for life. The concrete form is sexuality in the form of libido. While thanatos is destructive psychic energy, driving death and anti-life. Aggression is in fact one of the example.
Between id and superego is ego, a bridge that not only connects the two but also controls them. Ego is the principle of reality that carries out the process of individualization and protects the individual from external impulses. The ego functions to repress the impulse of the id that cannot compromise with reality by reconciling that reality through three choices whether it is to fulfill, postpone, or transform.
Superego is the idealized image of every person or conscience. Superego serves as something that is obeyed, used by an ideal figure in identifying pleasant and good behavior and ideals, with doubts in accordance with demands which then become 'mental connection' and used directly for the purposes good and bad based on the determinant namely ego.
 |
| Id, Ego, Superego. (source: wix.com) |
Therefore, maternal superego can be described as the ideal ego in a person's conscience which was internalized by their maternal figure. Maternal itself has the meaning of relating to a mother as well as typical to a caring mother, which then includes having the qualities or characteristic of a mother. For some female analyst, the anxiety generated by superego conflict stimulated by aggressive wishes may be warded off by invoking representations of the archaic all-powerful, limit-setting mother.
What does it have to do with maternal Superego?
Psycho has been called
the first psychoanalytical thriller. Psycho covers the motive of the maternal superego. It also
shares several other characteristics from their absent fathers and possessive
mothers that block any potential relationships. Whether it is through
psychological manipulation or literal killing, Hitchcock’s hero is
involuntarily ruled by a certain maternal superego.
They represent an ‘incarnation’ of a family disruption in which ‘the father is absent, thus the paternal function is suspended and that vacuum is filled by the “irrational” maternal superego. In other words, it “exposes” the dominating parental ego (the mother), ferociously devours the other, more deficient, half (the father), transcending/transferring a certain toxic sexual pleasure onto their son’s future desires. It also represents the distressing ‘triangle of mother, her son and the woman he loves’. In which how Norman Bates' mother does not accept any Bates' woman in her life was proof that she has not yet to leave her maternal superego aside, and thus causing an impossible love life for Norman.
The film also uses what is called the Oedipus Complex, the idea that sons want to kill their fathers and sleep with their mothers. It has been said that men are usually attracted to someone who possessed their mothers' traits. Norman is no different. His father is absent, having died without the audience ever seeing him and his closeness to his mother suggest that there may have been something unnatural going on between them. Norman even says, "a son is a poor substitute for a lover". He also stated that "a boy’s best friend is his mother", when he was asked by Marion on whether he hangs out with friends or not.
Norman seems very familiar with the insides of an asylum. In a scene where Marion suggest that maybe Norman’s mother would benefit from being in an institution. Norman then talks about what they are like in great detail. How else would he have known unless he had been in one? Although never explicitly said, the film gives clues that norman killed his father, spend time in a mental institutional and had a relationship with his mother until her untimely death.
Although some of freud’s theories in the field of psychology are no longer the standard by which mental health professionals guide their work, this film was made over 50 years ago and one should watch it through the eyes of someone in 1960. Whether Hitchcock wanted psycho to be steeped in psychology or not is up for debate but what is known is that screenwriter Joseph Stefano was in treatment during the time he adapted story from the novel. It seems clear that he used his growing knowledge of the subject and incorporated bits and pieces into the film, including an explanation by a psychiatrist at the end of the film.
“To understand that the way I understood it, hearing it from the mother that is, from a mother half of Norman’s mind, you have to go back ten years to the time when Norman murdered his mother and her lover...You see, when the mind houses two personalities, there’s always a conflict, a battle. In Norman’s case, the battle is over, and the dominant personality has won.” (quoted from Psycho, 1960)
Reference
2. Freud, Sigmund, (2016). Psychoanalysis For Beginners: A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis & Dream Psychology. Prague: E-Artnow.
3. Freud, Sigmund. (2018). The Ego and the Id. New York: Dover Publications inc.
4. Ward, Ivan & Oscar Zarate. (2014). Introducing Psychoanalysis: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books Ltd
Comments
Post a Comment