The suspense behind the suspense

Bradford 2021-10-13 13:05:30

"The Silence of the Lambs" (The Silence of the Lambs) Synopsis:
Clarice, a trainee agent assigned to the FBI just after his training, accepted a difficult task to find and arrest a nickname "Bison Bill" "The perverted murderer. Many young women have died on his hands, and some of their skin has been stripped. In order to understand the criminal's special psychology and find the hidden and ingenious murderer, Clarice had to visit a well-known psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal, in a heavily guarded prison.

Hannibal is a middle-aged man with a very high IQ, quick thinking and a little psychopath. He has a horrible hobby of cannibalism. He is composed, calm, knowledgeable and resourceful. Clarice's thinking ability is not the opponent of the doctor at all. Hannibuck asked Clarice to share his personal experience in exchange for his assistance. Clarice was impressed by the doctor's wisdom, and could not help but develop a wonderful feeling of sympathy and hatred for him. Her sincerity and innocence impressed the doctor. In many contacts, he intermittently provided Clarice with some clues. Under his guidance, Clarice began to gain something.

Another woman was kidnapped. This time the missing person was the senator's daughter. Hannibal provided clues to another member of the Bureau of Investigation on the condition of being transferred to a prison with natural scenery, but was deceived.

An angry Hannibal managed to get a chance to be transferred out of the prison and escaped from the extremely tightly guarded iron cage. At this time, Clarice, under the guidance of Hannibal, began to get closer and closer to the murderer. After a thrilling contact, Clarice finally killed "Bison Bill" and rescued the Senator's daughter.

"Bison Bill" was killed, but a more dangerous figure appeared again. At the celebration party, Clarice received a call from Hannibal. The more dangerous murderers are free. How many people will suffer misfortune this time?

Symbol-Jungle Modern Architecture Underground Prison

The movie begins in a jungle, where trainee agent Clarice trains and runs. In a cultural symbol, the jungle represents the subconscious of human nature, because it seems to hide many unknowns. Many plants can be produced from it every spring, but in winter you don’t know where they are? Especially the kind of jungle with black mud is more symbolic of the depths of the subconscious.

Then she walked like a modern office building by running, which can be seen as a level of consciousness, some level that can be controlled. The problem is always explained at the conscious level, but it occurs at the underlying level. This is the fundamental point of psychoanalysis.

Afterwards, Clarice was sent to talk with Hannibal, a psychiatrist who was outstanding before but became abnormal. This scene comes from an underground prison. According to Jungian psychology, these underground rooms always represent many things in the collective unconscious, and we can regard them as the shadow of each of us at the symbolic level.

When we go to a place with a horrible atmosphere at night, the horror we feel does not come from the environment, but from the heart. This is the smell in the heart unconsciously.

Jung once pointed out that shadows are not always bad. It is a symbol of wisdom in our instincts. If you communicate with it appropriately, it may be a wise old man to tell you something. We start here.

The whole movie is very complicated. The complexity of this movie is far more complicated than "Mind Catcher". Because it involves the analysis of three roles. Therefore, I can only say from three people, one is the trainee agent Clarice; the second is the perverted murderer "Bison Bill"; the third is the perverted psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal.

Lamb-Trainee Agent Clarice

The interaction between Trainee Agent Clarice and the abnormal psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal is a task given by Teacher Clarice, and she has been given careful tips before, so she should prevent it in the interaction. The heart is heavier, and no matter how pretended the preventer is, he can't actually conceal his emotions.

Clarice countered some of Hannibal's irritating provocations at the beginning of his relationship with Hannibal. Exposed the fierce nature of its defense. She didn't want to give people contempt. This is of course related to her childhood experience. Dr. Hannibal gave Clarice some helpful guidance at the beginning of the relationship. There are some exchange conditions. And this exchange condition is that Hannibal is treating Clarice. Their interaction is abnormal. Because this kind of situation is not encountered in actual consultation. This shows that Hannibal may have some unreleased complexes in his heart. Of course, the movie does not give us more clues.

At least Clarice's frankness gave Hannibal some excitement. Of course, this may also be related to the fact that a psychiatrist did not receive treatment from the patient in prison. Analytical psychology points out that many psychotherapists themselves have certain archetypes and complexes. This means that their personality brings them close to their profession. But this is not to say that they are all sick. But it is understandable that they like the profession itself can be analyzed, because it involves the possibility of a psychotherapist's counter-transference.

Clarice developed empathy after interacting with Hannibal, and defects always need to be satisfied. But this requires everyone to carefully review the movie before they can feel it. In a sense, Clarice had an intimate relationship with Hannibal. This potential intimacy was felt by Hannibal, a psychotherapist, and the girl’s feeling of needing help. So, here, Clarice's inner problems began to emerge. It was related to the murder of her father as a policeman in childhood. When we lose our sense of intimacy in childhood, the premature separation between us and our intimate objects will result in an incomplete release of libido. But it seems that this power has been sublimated into another constructive thing. This may have something to do with Clarice's psychology and career as an agent. A person who cares about her own heart may reflect that she has problems in her heart that need to be paid attention to.

Hannibal asked the second question about the experience of Clarice's father after he was shot. This situation was grasped by Hannibal as a psychoanalyst. Then he didn't point it out immediately, but instead gave Clarice a chance to emerge from his subconscious mind. Of course, in the last few contacts, the problem was pointed out, and the memory played a role. It was the failure of the lamb that was trying to save on the farm. This directly constituted an event that she did not complete. So sometimes there will be nightmares when sleeping. This problem was pointed out as if Clarice had healed because her consciousness had accepted what she had mistakenly suppressed. This is an impulse from the subconscious mind.

But the problem is far from here. Clarice's obsession with the perverted murderer "Bison Bill" actually projects the unfinished complex in her heart. That lamb actually symbolizes the girls whose lives were threatened by "Bison Bill." Because this is the symbol of the silent lamb. Many years ago, the failure of the lamb that Clarice wanted to save on the farm directly led her to rescue the current lamb—the girl who might have been killed. This impulse appeared directly in her actions, which was completely unconscious. Of course, she finally completed this event, and successfully released her libido's fixation from both psychological and emotional aspects. So that the victim can be rescued and healed himself.

But from Jung’s analytical psychology, we can see another symbolic meaning. She may have something to do with Abraham’s attempt to sacrifice his son to God in order to thank God. It is said that the child finally got the lucky result of not being killed because of God's love.

The perverted murderer "Bison Bill"

analyzes from the psychoanalysis of the object psychology, the perverted murderer "Bison Bill"'s murder and the stripping of female human skins to complete the female costumes are most likely to come from his childhood impulse, that is, "Bison Bill". Most of Bill's mothers have big problems in parenting, and they may even be patients with schizophrenia. "Buffalo Bill" has serious problems in being cared for and gender differentiation, which causes his mental development to still exist in the naive period, and tries to satisfy his inner impulse through a naive behavior.

The pupa he put in the victim's mouth fully explained his hope that he would become a woman. In fact, becoming a female is a symbol of his wish to obtain the love of his mother, and he satisfies his self-image needs by becoming a female. This self-image of assuming that one is a woman comes from earlier mental development to maturity.

His impulse appeared in an abnormal way. If he was able to give Rogers-style unconditional care in his childhood, he would not have that pathological consequence. In his imagery, he and the victim are one or at least indistinguishable. So when he kills those victims, he may subjectively feel that he is dealing with his own problems. His anti-social appearance must have caused his transformation to be death, rather than resurrection after death.

Dr. Hannibal, a perverted psychiatrist,

is a symbol of shadow. He has a complex of salvation. At least it reflects something by sticking a policeman there like Jesus when he finally fled.
It is said that his cannibalism may have something to do with a primitive sense of power, a symbolism of the Manner belief that was spread before in the South Pacific. When a person tries to gain strength, the primitive people go to kill another strong person. In this way, he can obtain the strength and wisdom of that strong man, which is called Manner in religion.
Here I think of Jet Li’s film "The Savior", which actually reflects this original theme. This power gain movie did not give me more content for my analysis. But from the perspective of the movie, Hannibal, the psychiatrist, may have had a strong urge to treat patients before. As a psychologist who is too aspiring to treat others, it may require reflection. Because this has two sides. A demon may be standing on the back of the healer.

How to understand? A person who is too intentional to help another person, if his helping behavior is not realized, then his negative emotions are also huge, and sometimes it can be terrible.

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Extended Reading

The Silence of the Lambs quotes

  • Jack Crawford: Starling, when I told that sheriff we shouldn't talk in front of a woman, that really burned you, didn't it? It was just smoke, Starling. I had to get rid of him.

    Clarice Starling: It matters, Mr Crawford. Cops look at you to see how to act. It matters.

    Jack Crawford: Point taken.

  • Miggs: [looks at Clarice after throwing his semen at her] Got you.

    [laughs insanely]

    Friendly Psychopath: Miggs, you stupid fuck!